Horror genre has surely got a big number of takers among the Indian viewers since I have never seen any Hindi horror movie show getting cancelled on its very first day even when there is no star featuring in it and no publicity or buzz existing about the movie before its sudden release. The fact proves that the audiences are just waiting for a good Hindi horror flick since long and this is one clear open field where anyone can easily hit a four or six with just putting in an extra effort coming out of the crease.
But sadly this Friday also offers another comparatively better but still a mediocre attempt in this particular genre taking its clear inspirations from a few foreign films or TV serials like GHOST HUNTERS, talking about a shooting crew visiting a haunted place at night to record some possible paranormal activities.
To give the makers their due credits 3 A.M. turns out to be a much better film in its first half (in comparison to many latest duds of this genre), when the director remains focused on creating the build-up and then shows the night invasion into the deserted haunted factory having a spooky history. The fun element remains intact in these first 45 minutes and the interest is kept alive as it should be. But once we come back post the intermission, the over-stretching begins and probably the producer instructions take over with many silly insertions of college flashbacks, songs, romance and more resulting in a quick loss of grip all of a sudden.
As a result, the film goes back to that routine trend of offering all clichéd scary sequences which no longer are able to give the viewers the much awaited thrills or chills. The story narration turns confusing (and then all weird) without any clear conclusions in the end. And later the final 20 minutes simply ruin it all leaving a quite poor impact on the viewers. Performances range from decent to average with Rannvijay, Kavin and Sahil putting the best efforts playing their weak characters and Anindita just looking pretty, getting much lesser scope than the three. In its technical department, the background score makes it presence felt only occasionally but the DOP does well to get it all right in the dark along with few soothing but deliberately inserted tracks affecting the horror feel.
In short, this could have been a fine flick with an intelligent mix of normal and night vision camera visuals, giving the viewers what they all wished for in the dark. But since we are still somewhere stuck in the same ages old formula of 'romance, sex and songs' package to be included in a horror film making it more commercially viable, its really difficult that any sensible director would get the freedom to make a brilliant Hindi horror film in the near future. Nevertheless, our hope is still there and may be an independent film-maker (free of all producer dictates) might be able to break this silly set pattern soon. So ending on a positive note, this is not as bad as many recent low budget movies and surprisingly has got few interesting songs too, specifically "Meharbaani Teri" which though gets placed at a very wrong timing, but still stays there in your mind as something better enjoyed in its second half. In fact this is another instance when a good song gets lost in an unknown and unimpressive film, which could have reached millions in a bigger project.
On the whole, with 3 A.M we are certainly heading towards the right direction, but now urgently need to get rid of the set routine pattern and come up with a completely focused horror film to scare the hell out of the viewers giving them the worth of their money spent.
