Raaz 3 (2012)

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

"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.

Vikram Bhat's "Raaz" was one of the best thriller Hindi movies, but the latest offering is a voodoo gone bad (The 16th Franchise will have Bipashu practicing Feng Shui?) and in 3D..or three times bad. The hero is a chubby cheeked midget who is slovenly boring and imbecilic. His acting is mostly staring into space and exposing what used to be his biceps. Pity the heroines who have to kiss a goat. Since when? a clown singing happy birth-day is a horror segment in a movie may I ask? Bipashu (a clever mix of Bipasha and Basu)is in fading as an actress for this franchize. She does not command the screen as she used to and she better leave the heaving and the heavy breathing to Sunny Leone. Shouldn't her gripe and black magic be more against Sunny instead of Sanjana! The direction by Bhat is corny and appeals to the astute Six-Year old moviegoer sitting on an adult lap. The story is ridiculous and vehemently put together to accommodate the wanna-be actors that are picked from the men doing dirty laundry at dhobi ghat. They must have auditioned for Bhatts, ever since they were given permission to churn out movies. The horror in the movie seems to be more in the making than the content.

I feel sorry for people who think this was rubbish.. they are comparing this to Hollywood who have all the money to use on realistic graphics. this is one of the first Bollywood movies i like as it had a very good story with some good acting from Emran. however Bipasha's performance was outstanding. her performance blew me away, and because of her performance i didn't care about the faults. also please watch this movie in 3d as it will have a great affect on you... p.s. some of the clips gave me goosebumps as when i watch a movie i am able to eat all my popcorn but i couldn't eat watching this, as my eyes were glued to the screen. so overall this movie has some faults but her acting and the story made up for it massively!!!!!! Solid 8/10 Also this is just my opinion but i think you should at least watch the movie to make your own verdict as my verdict was that this film was better then a lot of Hollywood horror movies!!!!

Horror films had become extinct in Bollywood, but RAAZ(2002) brought the trend in again and the film was a hit and it also gave a filip to that time 1 film old Bipasha Basu who got tremendous acclaim though her voice was dubbed. Years passed Vikram Bhatt the once lucky mascot of Bhatts with 3 back to back hits(Ghulam, Kasoor and Raaz) went to make films for others and for Bhatts he gave 2 disasters FOOTPATH(2003) and Inteha(2003) and it was pack up time for Vikram Bhatt, even otherwise his films were flopping, he came back with horror films like 1920, Shaapit, Haunted 3D.etc and got another disaster Dangerous Ishq(2012). Bipasha too started doing films for other filmmakers and after some time her career started flagging. RAAZ 3 is the third installment of Raaz after the average Raaz TMC(2009) Surprisingly Emraan was an AD for RAAZ and he starred in RAAZ TMC and now comes back in Raaz 3. It seems like Bhatts want to bring in the old formula of Ghosts, with Black Magic and all other stuff we thought had disappeared from Bollywood after RGV reinvented Ghost films with Bhoot(2003) The film also tries to mix in a lot more, there is plenty of eroticism, plenty of Humanism stories, Jealousy and lot of god vs evil. The film also copies from everywhere. The film has several moments which thrill while many make you die laughing. The film starts off well, in flashback(some trend of sorts recently) and then we are shown that Bips is awaiting her best actress award, but it goes to Esha Gupta. I didn't ever know that a director after winning best director will give the award directly to best actress, lol but then it also seems like there are 2 actresses only in Bollywood. Anywayz in such films logic be damned. As usual black magic is introduced in a funny creepy like Satan(Manish Chaudhary with lots of Kohl) who stays in a bhasti, he chants some thing and he gives Bips some water to give to Esha. So Bips seduces Emraan Hashmi and gets him do the job for her. He agrees(for some reason not explained) and what follows is several typical Bhatt style horror elements like the joker, windows opening on their own, while some are truly scary at times and the 3D is well used as per Indian standards though at times overused. The main story is sort of predictable but there are some scenes well handled like the scene when cockroaches attack Esha, Emraan confronting Bips at interval, The maid attacking Sanjana, The scene at the graveyard There are some unintentionally hilarious scenes like Emraan controlling Esha by kissing her, the ghost phoning Bipasha, The Satan demanding sex.etc Some scenes are never explained like why does the devil suddenly change his style when he could kill the maid why not kill Esha? Why does Emraan support Bipasha? The climax is well executed though it does look gimmicky Direction by Vikram Bhatt is decent, he reuses all his previous formula Music is typical Bhatt style, some songs are good like the title song, Deewana Kar Raha Hai, Rafta Rafta Camera-work is good, Dialogues are good at places with liberal use of abusive language.Bipasha Basu returns after a long time in a pivotal role and does an extreme good job, she excels in her role Emraan Hashmi does his routine Bhatt films act though he does a good job esp at the interval and he shows his growth, the role doesn't really demand much from him after proving his expertise with Shanghai his role is typical in Bhatt films(minus the streetsmart act) yet he does give a restrained performance which Dino had failed in Raaz Esha Gupta does seem plastic in her second outing(Jannat 2) though she does well in the cockroach scene yet she has a long way to go Manish Chaudhary, a regular of Bhatt camp does a good job