There comes a time in every director’s life when he has to decide whether to continue with a successful franchise, hand it over to someone else or venture into a new direction. Tigmanshu Dhulia should not have directed the third instalment of his successful franchise Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3 because it fails to bring back the firepower of the last two and doesn’t do any favours to the protagonist Sanjay Dutt for whom this was a comeback film, especially after his magnificent biopic Sanju released last month. Jimmy Sheirgill and Mahie Gill were in characters like the last two films while Sanjay Dutt looked clueless as to what he wanted to do with his life except settle down and spend rest of his days with his mistress.

Yes, the film sees the return of Jimmy Sheirgill and Mahie Gill as Saheb and Biwi, and introduced Sanju Baba as the Gangster but let’s face it, Saheb is not a Saheb but a convict who returns to his home, Biwi is an MP with powers beyond her control and the Gangster is a hotelier from England who is deported after one incident in his bar where he injured a Lord for insulting him. Some of the dialogues of the film are the saving grace because of the way they were delivered and the way they were taken by the audience, otherwise, there was more meaningless action and suspense than meaningful ones which dented the franchise big time.

Not much of a premise especially in the first half that takes too much time to establish characters that will change sides in the second half! Add a courtesan, some former nawabs and a seemingly dangerous game of Russian roulette, and you get a story that looks great on paper but falls flat when executed. Just like the blank shots of the Russian roulette, the second half is dry and lacks the firepower to make the audience sit on their seats. Everyone knew the end because you can’t kill the characters that have been part of the franchise, but how the film culminated was more disappointing than the execution.

Instead of using Sanjay Dutt’s charisma, they made him seem like a lover boy who returns to India to be with her love Suhani (Chitrangada Singh) and demand his share in the family estate which was neither illogical nor illegal. In the five years since the last instalment, things have changed drastically overall especially for the audience who knew that there will be an outsider hired to kill Saheb and that he will not succeed. Sadly, had the director known that his plot will fail this time, he would have gone the extra mile which he didn’t. On the whole, the film could have done well had there been more to it than the Russian roulette; it turned out to be one for the director who didn’t get the empty chamber as expected.•