Raaz 3 is the third movie from the most successful horror franchise of Indian films. The flick stars Emraan Hashmi, Esha Gupta and marks the return of original cast member Bipasha Basu. Music has played a vital role in the box office returns of this franchise. Nadeem and Shravan composed some lilting melodies for the first part, while Raju Singh and the Sabri brothers created hit tunes for the sequel. This time around, the onus of designing the soundtrack rests with Jeet Ganguli and guest composer Rashid Khan.

Parts of Khan’s lone composition Deewana kar raha hai (Javed Ali) bears resemblance to the Arabic song Ana law azeto by Mohd Hamaki. That aside, this stereotypical Bhatt camp melody is interesting largely due to Javed Ali’s heartfelt rendition. Ganguli, who has made it a habit of recycling his Bengali tunes, repackages his own Porle Mone (Awara 2012) as Zindagi se. The track is almost an extension of Khan’s composition and plays in the same soulful romantic space. It’s Shafqat Amanat Ali’s brilliant vocals that lifts the appeal of this ballad a few notches.

KK, who’s sung some remarkable songs for Bhatt films, is saddled with the lacklustre Rafta rafta, a rehash of Ganguli’s Bojhena se (Prem Amar 2009). The tune and lyrics are jam-packed with clichés. The title track Kya raaz hai (Shreya Ghoshal, Zubin) has a distant resemblance to Shanti shanti from Raaz but lacks its energy. An amalgamation of Arabic and Indian beats, this track although racy, fails to engage. Also Ghoshal seems like the wrong choice of singer for this one.

Ganguli reuses his Bengali song from the film Amanush (2010) to create Oh my love (Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal) but nothing can salvage this crashing bore of a duet.

Khayalon mein (Shreya Ghoshal) tries hard to be a perky, romantic ‘I have just fallen in love’ kind of number but ends up listless and flat.

For a franchise that boasts super-hit music, the sound track of Raaz 3 is a huge disappointment.

Verdict: Yawn