[tps_footer]In the first scene all the characters say ‘Hmmm’ so many times you wonder if any one was supervising the actors during their dubbing sessions. As the film progresses you realize that while the overwrought voiceovers delivered during the dubbing are problematic, they are not nearly as troublesome as everything else. It is unusual to come across a Hindi movie these days that can even boast abysmal production design and costuming, but Hate Story 3 manages to check those boxes too.

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Director Vishal Pandya rehashes the 1993 Hollywood film ‘Indecent Proposal’ and then adds in some more twists and turns. The result is tedious and tacky. Sharman Joshi plays a seemingly loyal and sensitive businessman Aditya Diwan who nurtures the memory of his dead older brother Vikram. Standing beside him like a rock is his wife Sia (Zarine Khan). Their life seems blessed until a mysterious businessman appears. Saurabh Singhania (Karan Singh Grover, pouting a lot) offers Aditya a blank cheque in return for one night with Sia. An enraged Aditya walks away from the indecent proposal igniting Saurabh’s plan to sabotage and destroy Aditya and Sia’s life.

Before you think this is simply a love triangle hinging on some as yet undiscovered secret, note there is Kaya (Daisy Shah) too – the rising star at Diwan enterprises whose loyalty and lack of ethics lead to a fatal end. For all his smarts, Aditya does inadequate due diligence on Singhania falling prey time and again to his plots. While one plot twist is as obvious as a BEST bus, the other something of a surprise.

Each couple gets one erotic song (there are three such situations), and Grover and Daisy Shah get one number each. Add dull picturisation to the list of shockers in this film. Also add the pedestrian dialogues: Besides the numerous ‘Hmmms’ in scene one, there’s a ‘I don’t know how to thank you but thank you!’ and ‘Is he handsome?’ ‘Handsome is as handsome does’. Okay then!

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There’s perhaps a reason why Daisy Shah and Zarine Khan are the least memorable Salman Khan heroines. As for Grover, he just grimaces, pouts and postures while Joshi’s middling efforts at ‘acting’ are not enough to salvage this film. There are plenty of statutory torso and cleavage shots that are mandatory in this genre, but like the rest of this film, they are not erotic, just clumsy and clunky.

Rating: *  [/tps_footer]