13 B- Beware of the Television
R.Madhavan is back & this time with a bilingual- 13 B in Hindi & Yavarum Nalam in Tamil. The movie also marks the return of Poonam Dhillon to the big screen after a long gap. One also gets to see P.C. Sreeram’s cinematography in only his 2nd ever Hindi movie & the music is by Shankar-Ehasan –Loy. Considering all these things and also the fact the movie is in the horror-thriller genre made me curious to watch the movie. Also with movies like Phoonk, 1920, Raaz- The Mystery Continues having all done well recently at the box office, the curiosity factor in my case was slightly more.
First things first Vikram Kumar the director and screen play writer loses no time in building up a premise to the plot. The movie is all about a family which consists of Madhavan, his wife ( Neetu Chandra), his brother, brother’s wife and two kids, a sister and the mother ( Poonam Dhillon). At the very beginning we see the family shifting into a new flat on the 13th floor (13 B) of the building after taking a loan. But a series of strange incidents keep happening especially with Madhavan.
The lift doesn’t seem to work for him, pictures of him taken on his mobile phone seem to be distorted, one is unable to hammer nails in the puja room, and so on. Madhavan seems to initially shrug off all these happenings and tries to get on with his routine. All the women in the house (especially the mother and her 2 daughter in laws) are fond of watching the saas- bahu serials on T.V & one day when they try to catch up on a favorite serial of theirs, they are unable to change the channels & happen to watch a new serial. What’s interesting is that the serial happens to be based on a family similar to that of theirs and the happenings in the serial seem to mirror those happening in 13 B.
One fine day Madhavan happens to notice the serial by chance & realizes the strange similarity between the serial & the situation at home.When things start getting even more bizarre, he even brings a friend, a cop (Murli Sharma) home to check the same & when he also admits to the strange similarity, things start to look all the more puzzling. So what really is the serial all about? What’s the connection between the serial & their family? Is their house haunted? What really is the secret behind all the sudden happenings? Watch the movie to find out the answers to these and many more questions.
Camera work by P.C.Sreeram really acts as one of the major highlights of the movie. The use of various color tones to suit the various moods of the film is remarkably done. Songs by S-E-L do not really work in the movie & only seem to slow down the pace of the movie. B.G.score by Tubby-Parik is effective. In terms of acting, Madhavan is earnest as always, Neetu Chandra is decent, Poonam Dhillon as the T.V obsessed mother doesn’t get much screen time, Murli Sharma is good, Sachin Khedekar is just o.k, Dhritiman Chatterjee is good and Deepak Dobriyal in a small role impresses nevertheless. The movie for once does not have the typical blood & gore associated with Indian movies of this genre & is more of something which plays on your mind.
Considering the way one’s life nowadays has become so much dependent on the T.V & the mobile phone, the story looks quite contemporary and reasonably convincing. Yes at times the pace does drop a bit, but overall the movie is fairly earnest in what it intends to convey. Definitely a decent movie and worth a watch especially for those who like movies like The Ring (no it’s certainly not close to it in terms of brilliance though).
Tags: deepak dobriyal, Neetu Chandra, P.C.Sreeram, Poonam Dhillon, R.Madhavan, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, Vikram Kumar
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
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Watched the thamizh version of it yesterday and was thoroughly impressed.
Definitely worth a watch.
I went with no idea and expectation whatsoever and came out petty content A landmark Horror Movie In India. matter of fact life was on edge for most of the time while watching.
I fail to understand What sort of Inferiority complex most of the reviewer are having and why nothing will ever stop them of making an absolute fool of themselves they are too pathetic for their “chaddis”
Go and watch this one.
I think the premises and even the idea of the movie was interesting. And its definitely worth a watch.
great post Sethu. was expecting this write-up, as u had promised. well, we watched this together, so cant say anything more than what u hv written, but honestly, i cudnt have said it better or more succintly.
good thriller, of course, PC Sreeram’s camera was very good, and tht scene where Murali Sharma’s character asks Madhavan to keep a tab of the Inspector’s story-development on TV, and not ignore it just because its side-character was intentionally hilarious.
Also, tht “chicken tangri-chicken kabab” analogy was good, but mayb went a bit too far.
sab khairiyat hai…
Release hogeyi?!
They kept that quiet!
Will most certainly watch it.
I guess it’ll be dvd as no cinema release. Again.
Sivakumar,Chandan,Ebrahim-
Yes definitely its worth a watch- whatever be the version- tamil ho ya hindi !!!
Its time people went a little bit out of their
“circle” & also watched movies like these
Jha- I was tempted to write about Murli Sharma asking Maddy to keep a tab on the inspector’s character but refrained as most people havent seen the movie yet.And yes it was a good movie to watch together for sure
Steve- do watch it – preferably on the big screen
( its a Big Cinemas/Pictures release) or else on the DVD- its worth it!!!
A good horror film. A fantastic second half. Hindi cinema rarely comes up with exciting horror, but this one is an exception.
Considering that it has a TV-set-gone-berserk scenario, it may remind you a bit of The Ring. Though it is more closer to ‘Soap’, a short film made by Bejoy Nambiar for the Gateway contest, starring Jackie Shroff. 13B seems to have expanded on the short film’s premise, successfully.
However, there is one place where 13B falls short. The non-judicious use of the handheld camera. It’s been done in many places, badly, and may induce headache and minor nausea. Overdoing handheld in a horror film is a crime and this film is guilty of that. Apart from this, it’s a fun ride all the way. Deepak Dobriyal gives another fascinating performance playing a character type that is almost always messed up by lessor actors. The man brings a genuine madness to all his scenes.
no hindi version in Chennai:-/….prefer hindi anytime over tamil..
13B is one of the most gripping Hindi films i have seen in suspense-horror genre and it can be easily compared to ‘Kaun’. I am hoping that the script is not ‘ inspired’ from any western film.
It is shocking to see how this movie is being rated by the critics.
http://www.top10bollywood.com/2009/03/13b-movie-review-ratings.html
Agree on your recommendation.
Cheers!
~uh~
i so wish i had an appetite for this genre…
Magik- kyon bhai aisi kya baat hai?
Jibin- if my guess is right, they’ll probably release the Hindi version a bit later in Chennai.But would suggest that you should watch the tamil version now, most of the actors except a few are the same & its been shot simultaneously.
Uh,Rocky- yes its definitely a gripping movie
Saw the movie yesterday, and I agree with most of the comments on this post and the other one on PFC. Excellent movie, gem of a scene with the Kamasutra recipes, nice placement of the blind man, good acting – need to see more of Maddy. Just had a slight irritation about the rest of the family (Poonam Dhillon and company) being so enthusiastic and nudgy about their serials. Doesn’t matter – Great watch – no doubt.
A superb movie..Initially I thought of it as a pale imitation of any RGV flick,but as the film progressed I found it interesting..Madhavan is in fine form..minor disappointment was BGM as well as songs by SEL which were just about ordinary..Horror at its best without usual sound effects tricks.
Abhilash,Sharath- yes certainly a good watch!!!
Oho! I was trying to leave my remarks Re ‘13B’ on ur post, lekin mere badtameez phone ne mujhe doosre ‘13B’ ki post ke taraf bhej diya.
Left my comments there.
I really liked it :-)
Btw Sethu Maharaja, i’ve left u a comment on Dazed & Confused’s Tamil related post.
Sorry yaar.
I’m leaving remarks for u on different posts!
Madness!
Steve- good that you liked it & yes I’ve replied to your remark on D&C’s tamil movie post!!!
I was wondering where u got to!
Thanks for that yaar :-)