Raaz 3: The Third Dimension

7/10 I liked the movie, The story is somewhat like an actress who is losing her fame now wants to take revenge with a new shining actress using black magic. Bipasha was brilliant, Emraan was good too but over shadowed by Bipss and Esha Gupta was OK OK. Story was good, Though the amount of horror scenes were a little less than i expected, but still those scenes that the movie has were really good.... Especially the scene where esha is surrounded by cockroaches, and a scene where her maid kills her self, these all scenes are really good... Vikram Bhatt has mastered this genre... The movie is worth a watch and better for 3D.

The Third Intallment in the Raaz Series, 'Raaz 3' is a Spooky & Entertaining Film, that is nicely written, fabulously directed & efficiently acted. Its surely among the better films of 2012!

'Raaz 3' tells the story of a film director, who must save his love from the black magic of a wicked woman who has become blind in love, lust and passion.

'Raaz 3' is about ambition, success, failure, love, hate & black magic. Maverick Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt directs this spooky fare fabulously. He handles the film sharply from start to end. Shagufta Rafique's Screenplay is a great mix of horror & entertainment. Cinematography by Pravin Bhatt is excellent. Editing is fair. Music by Jeet Ganguly, Mithoon & Rashid is decent.

Performance-Wise: Bipasha Basu is deliciously despicable & she's terrific. She steals every scene she's in & is the soul of the film. Emraan Hashmi gives a spirited performance, as always. Esha Gupta doesn't disappoint. Manish Chowdhary & Mohan Kapoor are perfect in supporting roles.

On the whole, 'Raaz 3' works big time. Recommended!

For Emraan lovers, there's plenty of what he does the best, this time he does it with two opposite actors in one single movie. However these acts are the only isolated events where Emraan maintains his sheen. Rest of the movie, he doesn't seem to put an effort to do more than being bossed around by two strong characters. Bipasha carries on with her typically conventional approach of acting, with plenty of leg room in her dresses wherever possible. Esha, being a new comer, has a few places where she seems to have been allowed to be herself and those are the only moments where she delivers. She has put extra conscious effort on shouting and cribbing scenes. Sorry but this is sales biz lady! if it doesn't show, its not called effort!

The viewer is assured that this is a horror movie by way of iconic sadistic horror vocals in feminine voice and in dark scenes it is the morphed sound of toads. And there are some scenes where you confuse Atma (Spirits) with Aliens, particularly where the Pret Atma (unholy spirit) enters the hospital room door in the form of a thick centipede and suddenly starts piling up upon itself into a human form. Another instance where the Atma sends virus into Sanjana's body through a centipede which crawls into her ear. Din't spirits use to enter human body just like that? since when did they start using transport? Thats unconventional horror!

The sets are sprawling rich. Music is bearable and slightly hummable too. While entering the hall, take tub full of pop-corns for munching in free time and do order a mid-movie snack.

With Raaz 3, the Bhatt camp continues to explore the viewer's fascination with the afterlife and the occult, liberally borrowing plot elements from a host of Hollywood movies that have acquired a cult following. These would at least include "The Exorcist" (priest exorcism), "House of Wax" (abandoned studio), "Resident Evil" (close-ups of freaky monster), "Nightmare on Elm Street" (the girl can't sleep), "Drive-thru" and "We all scream for ice-cream" (for the scary clown).

Apparently, the Bhatt camp took the misquoted sentence "Copying from one source is plagiarism, copying from multiple sources is Research" in a plain wrong way. In the words of Emraan Hashmi from this very movie, do they think the audience is dumb enough not to care about this kind of "chutia-paa"? Come on, Mr. Bhatt, give us something original, just sprinkling some Indian flavour where Ganeshji loans a trident to the hero so he can fight Evil in the end doesn't quite absolve you of plagiarism.

The worst part is the didactic manner in which the Bhatts explain stuff about the afterlife; almost, as if Class 6 students are being introduced to a History subject. "This is called Black Magic", "This potion of water is laced with black magic", "Now you go to the world of souls where you fight the baddies", "If God doesn't answer your prayer, come to the Devil. He might help you." Every time one of these dialogues flashed on screen, I couldn't help but yawn.

The only redeeming feature about this movie is Bipasha Basu. I think she showed some strong conviction in her acting - Esha and Emraan looked jaded and Esha's histrionics were a bit over-the-top. Manish Chaudhary, I generally consider him a good actor but this time, he somewhat failed to convince in the role of Satan.

"Raaz 3" cleverly utilises the success of the franchise and ropes in from the original the director Vikram Bhatt and actress Bipasha Basu (thank God, Dino Morea was permitted to stay away!).

Writer Shagufta Ali fences the plot quite well - a waning actress who can go any lengths to retain the crowning glory and succumbs to making use of black magic as a weapon of destruction.

Bipasha gives her best shot however appears she was over-doing it and if I may dare say flaunting her body she has toned over the unemployment years. Emraan Hashmi's character is not well etched out. Eesha Gupta manages a decent performance considering she is a newbie in comparison. And yes, Bipasha & Shagufta as half-sisters - bad writing.

Songs are OK carrying the signature Mahesh Bhatt feel. Director Vikram Bhatt who has developed core competence in the genre of horror does a decent job. On that note, the writer could have polished the edges to give that sheen it warranted.