The corny ‘love, lies and betrayal’ bit, a done-to-death catchphrase for romantic thrillers, gives you a darn good idea what to expect from this Vikram Bhatt production directed by his former assistant Vishal Pandya. When a smooth-talking dude comes into the lives of a constantly quarrelling husband and wife, the conjugal loyalty will understandably go by the board. Adultery, love, lies, deception and betrayal follows.

So what new does this latest yarn from Bhatt offer? Pretty little, except some good twists at the fag end of the tale and eye-catching cinematography by Pravin Bhatt who captures the jaw-dropping locales of Scotland with finesse.

Anjini (Nausheen Ali Sardar) lives in a swanky, palatial house (inherited from her rich parents) in Scotland with her good-for-nothing, loser husband Rajeev (Akshay Kapoor), a software engineer who is unable to foot the basic bills of the house. Anjini gives violin tuitions to kids to make ends meet.

When Rajeev suggests selling the house to fund his business, Anjini shoots down the request but eventually agrees to rent out a portion of it to ease the financial crunch. In comes Sanjay (Ashish Chowdhry) as the tenant who croons desi ditties at a local pub. Needless to say, Sanjay and Anjini get attracted towards each other while Rajeev is left huffing and puffing. The adulterous affair brings out new shades in every one of the characters and the game of one-upmanship begins in Three - Love, Lies And Betrayal.

To be fair, there are some twists that take you by surprise, but the plot remains predictable overall. And there are some aberrations in the plot that can’t be overlooked. The husband and wife have an ugly fight and then in the next scene they behave as if everything’s hunky dory. The dialogues are embarrassingly puerile at times - particularly the ones having the kindergarten rhymes.

The pacing of the film might seem slow with just three characters central to the plot but the narrative comes to the point pretty soon. Vikram Bhatt's script isn't inventive or immaculate but refrains from being a pungent potboiler (like his earlier attempts) and has its moments in the latter half. There are inconsistencies in writing as the husband and wife fight over divorce in one scene and seem to have no issues in the subsequent. Or when Sanjay's love abruptly switches from Anjini to her assets!

To an extent the film is saved by performances by the cast. Nausheen is rusty at places but shows sparks of good acting in the second half. Akshay Kapoor looks convincing playing a scumbag surviving on wife’s money and also beating her. Ashish Chowdhary slips into his character well, including his transformation in the latter reels.

‘Three - Love, Lies & Betrayal’ hardly offers anything novel or breathtaking. It’s an average thriller a la Murder but without the oomph of a siren. Which, in fact, could be a downer.

They say 'Two's company three's a crowd'. Three - Love Lies Betrayal is crowded with too many derivations.