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.

Third time is a charm, they say, but Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 fails to create the magic that its previous editions did. The story gets stuck in a time warp, much like the inhabitants of the decadent haveli that occupies centre-stage in this drama. Tigmanshu Dhulia's franchise continues with tales about rajas and maharajas, kunwar saabs and malkins, who either play power games or bump off each other. That is when they are not playing the game of seduction.

The prolific Tigmanshu Dhulia's nasty threesome are back - SBAG (the royal Saheb - Jimmy Shergill) his insatiable Biwi (Mahie Gill) and the Gangster (Sanjay Dutt urf Baba this time). The previous two installments in 2011 and 2013 had Randeep Hood and Irrfan Khan as the gangster respectively, hired to kill the Saheb but instead the gangster went crazy for the Biwi.

SAHEB BIWI AUR GANGSTER 3 begins where part 2 ended and twisted games that continue between the Saheb and the Biwi. Aditya Pratap Singh (Jimmy Sheirgill) is still in prison and is desperate to get out, settle scores and take back his lost power. His seductress wife Madhavi Devi (Mahie Gill) is now an MLA and using all the tricks of the trade to get what she wants. Aditya hatches a clever plan and comes out on bail.

The epic battle of greed, deceit, lust and money continues with Tigmanshu Dhulia's third instalment of Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster franchise. The Sahib aka Jimmy Sheirgill and his attractive Biwi played by Mahie Gill's never-ending pursuit of power takes us to this third part of the film, which was rather forced than required. Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster adds another name to the list of Bollywood films which fell into the impulse of making a sequel and then sabotaging an already-hit franchise for good.

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 is a continuation of the story of the earlier film. Saheb (Jimmy Sheirgill) is in jail for a murder charge), and is smouldering to get even with his wife when he comes out. Biwi (Mahie Gill) is still a nymphomaniac but is also dabbling into politics and has become a power broker of sorts for the region. She wants her husband to rot in the jail for as much time as she can possibly arrange. The Gangster (Sanjay Dutt) is the new entrant to the game.

Tigmanshu Dhulia's Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster universe, at least in context of Hindi cinema, is a unique one. It's a rare movie franchise without a genre - a dramatized portrait of outdated Indian royals who will stop at nothing to feel relevant again. You could say it's a Hate Story (or even Love Games) with decent actors set in the exotic power-play courtyard of Dhadak's Ashutosh Rana. Or, in its better moments, a twisted Mr. & Mrs. Smith or House of Cards remake that fetishizes the concept of a dysfunctional marriage.

Games for power continue and this time around Mahie Gill's Madhavi Devi is calling the shots. With her husband, Aditya Pratap Singh (Jimmy Sheirgill) behind bars and his second wife (Soha Ali Khan) perpetually drunk, she is enjoying her royal tag and her position as an MP.

A hoodie-clad Sanjay Dutt trounces his opponents in a game of Russian roulette in London. Cut to Highway On My Plate hosts unsuspectingly ticking off Nafisa Ali. An old faithful's daughter organises Jimmy Shergill's release and asserts her allegiance by secretly planting a microphone in his shirt.

So the torture of Saheb (Jimmy Sheirgill), Biwi (Mahie Gill) and Gangster aka Udai (Sanjay Dutt) begins from the word go. Saheb is in jail as shown in part 2 of the franchise & Madhvi is MLA taking care of the politics. Saheb gets out & shows his distrust in Madhvi for what she did to him; but they sleep together and she gets pregnant. Madhvi has the superpower of seducing men & she can use it to any extent for achieving what she wants.

The tale of vengeance, betrayal and lust gets bigger and better with its third instalment but director Tigmanshu Dhulia clearly misses the bulls' eye this time. With focus on making it of great scale and much grandeur unlike the previous two, SBG 3 loses its motive every now and then.

With Aditya Pratap Singh (Jimmy Sheirgill) languishing in jail, his wife Madhavi Devi (Mahie Gill) has become a political force to reckon with and wants to maintain the status quo. But when she discovers that Aditya is getting acquitted and will be back to reclaim his position, she decides to team up with banished prince Uday (Sanjay Dutt), a London-based club owner, who makes obscene amounts of money by playing Russian roulette, to get rid of her husband.

"Jab naam ke alaava kucch bacha na ho toh naam ko bacha bacha ke chalna chahiye (When you have nothing left but your name, you would do well to fiercely protect that name)," says a nautch girl to an arrogant aristocrat in Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster (SB&G) 3. The effect is lost in translation, but in Hindi this is the kind of zinger written and delivered without sounding self-conscious and bombastic that made Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster (2011) and its sequel, SB&G Returns (2013), such fun to watch.

The law of diminishing returns has finally caught up with one of the most unlikely film franchises in recent memory. Tigmanshu Dhulia's Saheb Biwi aur Gangster 3 is the latest in a study of feuding ex-royals that began fruitfully with Saheb Biwi aur Gangster and continued in a lesser vein with Saheb Biwi aur Gangster Returns.

The SBAG rajwaada is back for a third-go-round, and so is the series' hallmark murderous intrigue and bloody ambition, and familiar characters reprising their roles, with a new addition or two. Saheb (Shergill) is plotting to get out of jail, where we left him at the end of the second instalment. Biwi (Gill) has grown in ambition and influence, and has no intention of losing ground, or stepping aside for the returnee. And Gangster, played this time by Dutt, is the guy who barges in to upset this heaving apple-cart.

In the crumbling, amoral universe that saheb and biwi inhabit - Jimmy Sheirgill and Mahie Gill reprise their roles - well-past-their-prime royals employ wicked, wicked ways to manipulate each other and their susceptibilities. But do their exertions make for great cat-and-mouse drama? Certainly not quite to the extent, or in the manner, that the first two entries of the series - Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster(2011) and Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns (2013) - did.

An incarcerated saheb. A politically powerful biwi and a London based gangster, who makes a killing playing the dangerous game of Russian roulette. Director and co-writer Tigmanshu Dhulia wastes no time in setting the stage for a confrontational drama of power-hungry men and women who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Russian roulette and a Sanjay Dutt behind the trigger are the only additions to the Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster franchise. They both appear rusty and out of practice. Director Tigmanshu Dhulia's new film, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3, tries to be a political thriller, but fails to look any different from a cringe-worthy television soap where everybody is plotting against everybody.