At less than two hours though, the film is never a slog. There was potential here to create a compelling drama about the dark secrets that ordinary folk bury out of sight. But at best it’s a half-baked experiment with a few shining moments.

Everyone plays it quite competently, despite the predictable beats. Nice to see Renuka Shahane, who aims for naturalness despite some stodginess in the way her part is written.

This isn’t a film that lacks ambition but it never becomes one that is essential.

This isn’t a film that lacks ambition but it never becomes one that is essential.

For all its flaws, 3 Storeys is still worth watching because it seeks to engage with the audience in a manner that is anything but run of the mill.

All said and done, this movie is for those who enjoy suspense thrillers. Keep your expectations in control and you’ll surely get worth your ticket price. Renuka Shahane will surprise you and on an average, you’ll like at least one story of all the three.

Have we seen such anthologies on the Indian screen before? Joshi himself was part of Life In A Metro, similarly a slice of life kinda collection of shorts, set in a metro. But this one is more like Dus Kahaniyan, if you may, only less exhausting, since lengths of films don’t matter as much as moving from one experience to another, without much of a breather, does.

3 Storeys are three stories about people who live in a Mumbai Chawl (old fashioned project housing). It’s almost refreshing and yet not really. Someone from the ensemble cast overdoes it. It’s almost good, and then it isn’t because you’ve read the story somewhere. It’s an idea that’s not new and yet, a decent effort. Would have been smarter move to put it straight to Netflix or Amazon.

Overall, an intelligent viewer would initially dismiss the film as a lazily penned plot with banalities and plot-holes galore, but then the writers cheekily and astutely wrap up the film… At some points, it makes you say, “Ah, I did not see that coming.”

3 Storeys, which is well-cast with suitable talents, is a quirky cinematic experiment. Like bedtime stories, some stick while others are entirely forgettable. This film, which is a collection of such bedtime stories, is stuck somewhere in the middle.