The story: A documentary filmmaker named Chandrika decides to make a film about 3 particular inmates: Jaggu the poetic lawyer, a man named Nagya who is convinced he is innocent, and the con artist Ishaan who has a history of breaking out of prisons. Does Chandrika have a secret reason behind making the docu? Can she uncover the truth about certain inmates innocence? All is revealed in the end.

The root of the problem lies within the cut and dry/routine script by Nagesh Kukundoor. The story, characters are laid out within 20 minutes. Before the revelatory coincidental over-the-top twist end sequence in the final 10 minutes, viewers get an incredibly boring hour and 10 minutes of repetitive conversations and no real characterization. Nagesh simply wastes invaluable time with scene after scene of uninvolving events such as characters eating sweets or Chandrika asking the same standard questions to her subjects. No part of this film is worth sludging through the everlasting run time.

The story itself also fails to connect. Unless a plot about a fictional documentary filmmaker is used as a gimmick (like in "The Blair Witch Project"), I don't see the point of utilizing it. I would rather watch a little seem straight forward prison drama such as "A Man Escaped," or a real documentary film focusing on a convict ala "The Thin Blue Line."

To make matters worse, the film has a misogynistic overtone. Throughout the course of the film, three women are killed (one pregnant with twins), a woman is abused by her husband on screen, and a story is told about an abused mother. Granted, these scenes are relevant to the story, but alternative routes for the story would not be hard to come up with. It's not like the story is based on true events.

The DVD

Video:
Where do I begin? The widescreen picture quality is riddled with complications. Frequent black mark scratches, grain, ugly blue filters grace the screen. The film was released in 2005, but it looks like an old movie from the 70's. Perhaps the crew needs to update their film equipment.

Sound: No complaints here. The dialogue and music is nicely balanced, making the Dolby Mono track A-OK in my book.

Extras: Previews for "Shoujyo: An Adolescent," "Face," "Fakers," "God's Sandbox," "Moonlight," and "Two Men Went To War." Additionally, there are Hindi TV ads, a U.S. theatrical trailer, a photo gallery, and a 15 1/2 minute Behind The Scenes featurette. The featurette shows some on set footage, talks about the story and characters and how they shot at a real prison. The only downside to this extra is there are no subtitles that reveal who is speaking.

Final Thoughts:
The humdrum "3 Walls" should be avoided unless you derive enjoyment out of uneventful movies that rely on botched M. Night Shyalaman esque endings.

Film and television enthusiast Nick Lyons recently had his first book published titled "Attack of the Sci-Fi Trivia." It is available on Amazon.com.