Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3
*ing: Sanjay Dutt, Jimmy Shergill, Mahi Gill, Deepak Tijori, Chitrangada Singh, Soha Ali Khan, Kabir Bedi
Rated: 6/10
Tigmanshu Dhulia, the emerging master of the differently enabled underbelly of human nature, makes this third one in the franchise a strangely compelling fare.
The rajwadas are in full steam here, helmed by Jimmy Shergill, the simmering and ramrod straight royal behind bars, serving a sentence for crimes he has not committed.
In that much the film takes off from where it was left in the last one. Mahie Gill as the strange woman mix of scorn and shine is the meatiest part of the film as is the hate wounded relationship she shares with the husband she had orchestrated to put behind bars to, as she tells his second wife, to pay for some intangible sins.
Gill, now the power brokering maharani with political backing all the way up to Parliament, is here to stay at her husband’s expense and also because she has turned insanely ambitious while he has been away. She is in no mood to grant territory to her Saheb when and if he returns from jail.
Dhulia knits up the delightfully ugly sequences around this pair and keep the emotions simmering at all levels in the negative zone. All other characters are needless in the film so it is kind of wasted talent of stalwarts like Kabir Bedi and Nafisa Ali to name a few. The biggest loser is Sanjay Dutt who plays the villain but Dhulia fails to make him look or act like one all through the film in which he romances Chitrangada Singh Bai Sa with an indulgent deliberation that comes across as fake.
As the owner of a london hotspot he promises a good fare but soon fades into the badlands of the rajwada terrain where he is a complete misfit.
Even though the ploy of this edition is weak, Dhulia manages to keep you waiting for more and keeps the doors open for the next one is the row. But maybe he will go into Netflixing the next one, with Mahie and Shergill staying in the hot seat with their sizzling hate chemistry.