Movie review: Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3
Director Dhulia, who has co-written the film along with Sanjay Chauhan, sets up a brisk pace and presses on relentlessly, pushing one twist onto the viewer after another without letting go. Secrets get revealed at every turn with such dizzying intensity that one tends to lose count after a while. Characterisation is the key factor in the story and Dhulia has let each character flesh out. Jimmy Sheirgill, who is angry at first, is later shown to be a husband who is envious of his wife's political success and wants that power for himself, even if it means letting bygones be bygones for the time being. Mahie Gill is a woman who thinks she can charm her way into anything and concocts a web of lies because she loves playing the game for the highest stakes. She's totally corrupt and yet is shown to have a vulnerable streak. She has carved a niche for herself in a man's world and is unwilling to let it go out of her grasp. And Sanjay Dutt is shown to be someone who is tired of his violent past and just wants to start a new life, willing to do anything to achieve that end. His is the character you most sympathise with as he genuinely wants to turn over a new leaf and is aware about his shortcomings. The film piles on intrigue upon intrigue but goes for a Shakespearean finale in the end, culminating in a bloodbath that makes you realise the futility of it all...
Mahie Gill is the soul of the film. She changes emotions like a chameleon and has the best lines at her disposal. She makes a complex character look easy and makes you fall in love with her completely unscrupulous persona. The film would have faltered in the hands of a lesser actor but she juggles all the twists with aplomb. Jimmy Sheirgill has got a more rounded character than what we saw in the earlier two films. He’s in tune with his avatar throughout, bringing forth both the angst as well as the misery though his eyes and expressions. Sanjay Dutt plays another larger-than-life character and made it his own. You feel like you're watching an actual game of Russian roulette when Baba is playing it. And his angry burst at the end looks heartfelt.
The film offers a critique on the state of India's royals in passing, reflecting that they are still living off the reflected glory of their glorious past and are refusing to be in touch with the times. Dhulia has shot the film in Rajasthan and the Indian scenes do offer a glimpse of the past grandeur. His London scenes are all garishly lit and hence seem out of tune with the Indian portions. Dialogue is simply cracking and rises above the convoluted plot. The addition of songs was unnecessary and eats into the narrative.
All in all, Dhulia has made an entertaining film which thrives because of the efforts of its main cast. It's an earthy saga, where the boundaries between good and evil are almost nonexistent and hence might not prove to be everyone's cup of tea...
Trailer : Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3
Ronak Kotecha, July 26, 2018, 9:41 PM IST
Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 is royally unpredictable
Story: It’s the third edition of Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster series where it’s survival of the wittiest and the wealthiest. Will the royal couple Madhavi Devi and Aditya Pratap Singh live to tell the tale of relentless plotting, scheming and backstabbing?
Leading them all is Queen Madhavi Devi (Mahie Gill), who pulls off a complex character with such ease and congeniality, leaving you wanting for more, despite her having the lion’s share of the script. Coming in a close second is his highness Aditya Pratap Singh (Jimmy Sheirgill) who does a fine job of balancing the dream of capturing his lost love and glory. As Kabir aka Baba, Sanjay Dutt is not quite the gangster but more of a sophisticated outlaw, who has a heart and a temper that always spells trouble. He is apt for the role, although he looks a tad bit tired and less royal. But while these three have their tasks cut out, the same cannot be said for the other two ladies in the film. Chitrangada Singh as Suhani looks breathtakingly beautiful but barring her introduction scene, does little more than slowing down the pace. Soha Ali Khan as Saheb’s biwi no.2 Ranjana is wasted, literally and figuratively. Rest of the supporting cast - Kabir Bedi, Nafisa Ali and Deepak Tijori are adequately cast as the royal family of Boondigarh.
With so many characters there is often a problem of plenty, but with taut writing and an unpredictable narrative, writers Sanjay Chouhan and Tigmanshu Dhulia manage to stay ahead of the curve. Of course, Dhulia falls prey to usual pitfalls of a forgettable item number and a totally avoidable love song, but what redeems him are the crisp punch-packed dialogues, which are less dramatic and more effective. Overall, with a screenplay that surprises and performances to match, SBG3 successfully takes the legacy forward with minor bumps on the way.
Kunal Guha, July 27, 2018, 7:59 PM IST
The film opens in a noisy club called House of Lords in London where an obsessed Russian roulette player reduces his competitors to corpses accompanied by a jarring score (“Khel Jigare Ka”). This morbid opening sequence is only a ruse to bridge the next scene — where a TV crew interviewing a certain royal family in middle-India is apprised of a similar game their ancestors dabbled in. This is perhaps, the only time the makers give a toss about logically segueing from one scene to another. The rest is a free-flowing mess.
Tigmanshu Dhulia’s obsession with weaving a tale of deceit and lust featuring erstwhile rajas with hollow pride, sexually-deprived and perennially-inebriated ranis and that third wheel, seems much jaded in this third edition. The franchise known for celebrating infidelity and eccentricity, delivers an offering which millennials would quite rightly summarise as ‘extra’. After all, for the price of a multiplex ticket, you get mujra dancers who can slay acoustic numbers on the guitar, diabetics who are compelled to gobble down laddoos and a rani who’s spurned for her “mardon ka shuak” even though we only see her making love to her husband in the film.
Each character here has a purpose but lacks a distinct motive. Yuvraj Aditya Singh (Jimmy Sheirgill) has two ranis, Madhavi (Mahie Gill) and Ranjana (Soha Ali Khan) and he’s hungry for more. Then, there’s the recently-deported Uday Singh (Sanjay Dutt) who has returned from England after cracking open the head of a patron at his club with a wine bottle. He hopes to invest his hospitality experience in converting a palace into a five-star. Only that he doesn’t have the dosh to fund his dreams. But his mujra dancer love Suhani (Chitrangda Singh) couldn’t care less. “Hum paise ke raja-rani nahin, pyar ke raja-rani banenge,” she assures her pauper prince.
Undoubtedly, Gill is the hero here, or she could’ve been at least. But she barely manages to milk the screen time and elevation her Madhavi is allotted. That her character is a woman who constantly weighs the balance between compromise and something of equitable value, allowed her the moral flexibility to carve a layered character. But the actress best remembered for her performance in Dev D seems single-mindedly consumed in trying to make her one-liners land. Dutt couldn’t be more out of place than in this film. Struggling to channel his Kaante avatar, he’s barely the reservoir of gruff he once conjured on the big screen. In a romantic number set in an expansive desert opposite Singh, he could pass for a beefier Ismail Darbar forsaken by his safari tour group. Kabir Bedi has retained his imperial manner and double-bass baritone but appears like a claymation character in certain close-ups, while Deepak Tijori seems to have been cast just because he accidentally stumbled into the film’s set. Singh looks like a million bucks in every scene but her character is forgettable and it would’ve served her well to ditch that mujra number that’s more athletic than aesthetic.
It’s difficult to imagine that this film has been helmed by Dhulia — the very same who directed the gripping account of the dacoit-turned-athlete Paan Singh Tomar or even the previous films in this franchise. Here, high ambition and low vision result in amplifying tracks that worked in the past, even if they come at the cost of a disjointed story.
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