In short, here is a drag of a film, called a bittersweet drama, which is, really speaking, much ado about — almost — nothing.

One thing’s for sure: Without Khan’s performance, this film would not be even a whit appealing. Without his sheer star presence as Aryan and Gaurav, the film would not be watchable at all. But WITH him, and as the film stands, we will have to watch and see if his real-life fans can take this garbled narrative of a film towards “hit-hood.”

The violence combined with the dreary look is intended to be very ‘international’ (sic), but actually both the brutality and look are overdone. We lost count of the stabs and slicing of heads, throats and abdomens), but, mercifully, there are no profanities either, controversial or otherwise.

A Long Road to Nowhere…

This one makes last week’s “Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3” look not-so-intolerable, as it is the last word in how not to make a sex comedy. In fact, unless you are not impressionable, you could be put off by the word that precedes the word comedy above, so distasteful is the whole affair!

The flaws are glaring, and the pace, even for about 50 minutes post-interval, is too long and flaccid. The climax is remarkably tame and made so simplistically that it’s plain silly!

In short, if you liked “Hate Story” and loved “Hate Story 2” (and thrillers should be cerebral and logical), then “Hate Story 3” will be a complete anti-climax despite the smart mounting. Go home and think, and you will realize that the film conned you — of the believable story that it could so easily have narrated within the same context.

…unless you are terrible addicts of one or more of Ali, Padukone, Kapoor or Rahman, stay away and go watch a riveting nautanki instead!