Three - Love Lies Betrayal: Movie Review

Director: Vishal Pandya
Cast: Ashish Chowdhry, Akshay Kapoor, Nausheen Ali Sardar

Anjini (Nausheen Ali Sardar) drives swanky Volkswagen, lives in a palatial mansion but still suffers from money crunch and makes a living out of teaching violin to kids. Furthermore she also volunteers to give free lessons to neighbourhood Indian offspring, as his mother showers desi compliments derived from Subhash Ghai’s Pardes (You can get a girl out of India, but you cannot get India out of a girl).

Anjini shares a strained relationship with her good-for-nothing husband Rajeev (Akshay Kapoor) who suggests selling off their castle. Finally they end up hiring just one paying guest though the house is big enough to be rented out for an entire secondary school, which could have put an end to all their money woes.

Sanjay (Ashish Chowdhry), who sings Hindi numbers (sounding suspiciously feminine) at the local Scotland pub, enters as the tenant. Anjini’s loveless marriage gets her close to Sanjay as they indulge in an illicit affair. Soon you sense that the film is adulterating into the adulterous anecdote of Murder (2004) (without any adult overtones) but post interval it pursues another Emraan Hashmi flick Aksar (2006). If you have seen either of the two or are accustomed to the Abbas-Mustan brand of triangular thrillers, it won’t take you long to comprehend the twist in the tale.

The pacing of the film might seem slow with just three characters central to the plot but the narrative comes to the point pretty soon. Vikram Bhatt’s script isn’t inventive or immaculate but refrains from being a pungent potboiler (like his earlier attempts) and has its moments in the latter half. There are inconsistencies in writing as the husband and wife fight over divorce in one scene and seem to have no issues in the subsequent. Or when Sanjay’s love abruptly switches from Anjini to her assets!

Pravin Bhatt’s cinematography is consistently composed in the fresh foreign locales. And couldn’t help pointing out but the background theme is suggestive of the verse ‘ Dil Tere Bin Kahi Lagta Nahi, Waqt Guzarta Nahi ’ from R D Burman’s popular love tune ‘ Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai ’ from Rocky .

This would be the first time that Ashish Chowdhry is not playing an out-and-out comic character (though there are some lighter shades to it). He doesn’t appear as menacing as his character demands but doesn’t disappoint either. Nausheen Ali Sardar comes up with a ‘fairly’ good and convincing performance. Akshay Kapoor is decent.

They say ‘Two’s company three’s a crowd’. Three – Love Lies Betrayal is crowded with too many derivations.