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With a bad screenplay, and not much better music or acting, it is the story that comes to the rescue of Murder 3

Vikram (Randeep Hooda) a fashion-cum-wildlife photographer who shifts to Mumbai from South Africa along with his girlfriend Roshni (Aditi Rao Hydari). The couple is crazy about each other and plan to marry soon. They even purchase a grand colonial mansion on the outskirts of the city, but Aditi soon discovers that her boyfriend has a roving eye. So she decides to hide out in a secret room in the mansion to test his love for her, and to find out if he has affairs with other women.

This lands her in deep trouble as Vikram hits the jackpot in a few days in the form of a new girlfriend Nisha, played by the super hot Sara Loren aka Mona Lisa aka Mona Laizza! Meanwhile, the police start suspecting Randeep to be the murderer in the mysterious disappearance of his fiancee Roshni. Yet the situation is more than a mere murder mystery.

Now a good murder mystery usually has a few standout factors: a great story, capable actors, a flowing screenplay and a kick-ass twist. Murder 3 – which in its name announces that it is a murder mystery – lacks almost all of the above. But it is the story with a twisted climax and a sense of poetic justice it leaves you with, that comes to its rescue. However, it’s too late when it does, ‘coz you have already gone through the first half by then and realised that boredom coupled with incessant hamming (even the camera hams, if possible!) can leave scars on the brain. So when the actor onscreen screams, “Stop it! Stop, please!” you know someone in the movie understands how you feel.

An ‘official adaptation’ of the Colombian film La Cara Oculta, Murder 3 could have been better had it been a frame to frame copy, which it isn’t, although you can see a few scenes that are exactly the same in the two films. Yet, even at its best moments, Murder 3 is like a poor cousin. We expected more, especially when we considered other movies from the Vishesh Films stable, made on a respectable budget, and lauded as the directorial debut of the producer’s son!

And Vishesh Bhatt, in his directorial debut, shows that he has plenty more to learn about making a successful commercial film. The only good decision by the young director may be that he picked La Cara Oculta to make into his version, with the requisite Bollywoodian masala.

On a scale of one to 10 on the ham metre, with 10 being the extreme point of excess, Randeep as a hotshot fashion-wildlife photographer scores a 5; Aditi comes in with a performance rating of 4; while the oh-so-sexy Sara scores a full on 10! The three try hard to set their characters right, yet they seem so shallow that you don’t get the full impact of the twists and turns, and everything seems unfinished.

It would probably be a far better use of your time to call for the original film from the DVD library, watch it with your beloved, and look deep into her/his eyes to figure out if they are cheating on you. Because the movie is as much about infidelity and trust in a love relationship as it is a murder mystery.

* Poor

** Average

*** Good

**** Very good

***** Excellent