What a disappointment! That's what we can say about the miserable box office performance of director Tigmanshu Dhulia's Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3. The first two movies were no Rs 100 crore grossers, but they got high acclaim for their narrative, black humour and the performances and earned respectable at the box office to be termed 'hits'. The threequel not only has performed below par at the box office, but also with the critics. As per the last update, the movie has managed to collect Rs 5.40 crore only in the first weekend.

What's disheartening is that Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 was to be Sanjay Dutt's second stab at regaining his lost stardom, after his comeback movie, Bhoomi, failed to bring in the audiences. The movie, for some reason, came out without much buzz and likewise, failed to draw in the audiences too. Having seen the movie and observing all the pros and cons, here's what we determine are the five true reasons why Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 was a disappointment.

Lack of promotional buzz

The first trailer of Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 made a bang! And then...oh wait, that's it! Despite Dutt's biopic Sanju minting money at the box office (currently the fourth highest grossing Indian movie of all time), the movie failed to capitalise on that buzz and to hire a good PR to promote itself. I am sure not many would have even known that SBAG 3 even released last week till the reviews came out!

Sanjay Dutt yet to regain box office pull

People might be talking a lot about Sanjay Dutt, thanks to his controversies and his movies. But it has been a long time that Sanjay Dutt has delivered a true-blue hit on his own. Most of his big hits in recent times were multi-starrers like PK, Son of Sardaar and Agneepath, that had other stars with more formidable box office pull. His comeback movie (after having released from Yerwada jail in 2016), Bhoomi, was a disaster and now Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 as well. It's not right to write Dutt off as a solo box office lead so fast, but it is advisable for the actor to choose the right projects and play safe doing multi-starrers with established production houses. Karan Johar's Kalank, Ashutosh Gowariker's Panipat and YRF's Shamshera are the rights steps in this direction; though we can't say the same for Torbaaz and Prasthaanam.

The weakest in the trilogy with Sanjay Dutt being the Achilles Heel

Now, let's talk about the movie. Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster franchise is not an immediate crowd-puller like the Dhoom or Krrish series. Instead, it works more on word-of-mouth publicity that made the first two films hit. However, the third film is a rather uneven film, that loses Dhulia's touch at times. The movie works the best when its focus stayed on Jimmy Sheirgill and Mahie Gill's characters. However, surprisingly, the weakest link was any scene that focused on Sanjay Dutt. He looked awkward in his performance, even though gangster roles have always been his forte, and his romance with a much younger Chitrangda Singh looked very uncomfortable onscreen. When the biggest USP of the movie is also your biggest weakness, your movie needs a lot more to get past that. Unfortunately, SBAG3 lacked that mettle.

Poor reviews

We gave a fairly good review to Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3, mostly because of the aforementioned Jimmy-Mahie scenes that had the brilliance of Dhulia's writing. Unfortunately for the film's producers, other reviews weren't as lenient. When the reviews are unanimously bad, only Salman Khan's star-power can pull you off. Last time we checked, Bhai didn't feature in the cast!

Dominance by Mission Impossible and Dhadak

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 (as well the other Bollywood release of the week, Nawabzaade) was the latest victim of Hollywood's emerging dominance at the market. This time, Bollywood releases were trumped by Tom Cruise's action vehicle, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, which enjoyed very positive reviews and also getting the highest opening weekend for a Hollywood film in India. The movie collected approx Rs 36.5 crore in its opening weekend. There was also Dhadak, whose youthful romance continue to draw in the audiences, even in the second week. It collected Rs 11.50 crore in its second weekend, which is double that of SBAG3.

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(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 30, 2018 03:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).