Apr 20, 2009 04:03 PM
3771 Views
(Updated Apr 20, 2009 05:44 PM)
Forget The Scary movie. Forget The hostel part 1 , 2 or 3 (if there is one) Even forget the brilliant The Blair witch project. Welcome to a handful of homemade horror. Welcome to 13 B.
God, since when have we started making REAL spooky movies in hindi? A standard hindi horror flick is usually loads of meaningless gore, some 'kabrastan kitsch' thrown in, lots of bhatakti aatmas and more meaningless ghosts in the closet. I know there have been some fresh attempts at horror lately, but this one beats them all.
To start with I loved the old wine in a new bottle concept of combining the bhatakti aatma with the soap operas. Its simply genius. By now I guess even the radicals agree that making a hindi horror flick is almost impossible without the aatmas (peace be upon them) and God knows I will be glad to have misunderstood here. But the role the soap operas play in the lives of the 'saas bahu' in the Indian household and leveraging on that is a stroke of a genius for sure.
Because of the nature of the movie and with the sincerest intention of not spoiling the plot, I will not elaborate on the story. But I can safely say the makers of the movie have a real spooky story to tell which will redefine words like cold sweat and spine chilling. It even has got elements of a suspense movie, a murder mystery and at times it might pass on as a thriler as well!
And yet, with all these experiments we let the director get away scot free. Cause we are not complaining. We have found whatever we want in a horror flick and more. The tension is palpable all through the movie and there hardly is a single dull moment, what a refreshing change!! Just watch the movie late at night and tell me if you do not jump out of your skin at the slightest of sound or just the (now eerie) shadow of that big plant in the living room!!!
As far as acting is concerned, well, most of the times, there appears to be nobody else on the screen than Madhavan (and this even if he has certainly shrunk in size since the Mumbai meri jaan days!) He certainly is one of the best things about this movie and does a great job depicting the fear psychosis of a person who is at the wrong side of being the chosen one!
He does complete justice to his character - one moment he is one with this tacky sense of humor and the other he is a screaming terrified family man trying so desperately to save the people he loves. The rest of the cast fit into their characters equally effortlessly. Neetu Chandra as his wife is such a natural, so is Poonam Dhillon as his mother. Overall, a near perfect cast of characters.
Overall, a movie worth watching just to check out the new wave of Indian movie making if nothing else. If horror movies are your type, this is a must watch. This certainly is a well made movie by all means. True, there are times when the story seems a little lame (I mean the whole family watches this serial and can not connect it to the obvious) and the one-song-soundtrack is a bit funny in the sense that it looked too abrupt and put at the last moment just as an afterthought. But I would not call these a blunder as this is a horror movie and we did not even look for any songs!!
And of course check out the cheeky ending. The aatmas getting all geeky and communicating with the real world through mobiles. (What, we have got i-phone holding aatmas now??) Is a sequel in the making Mr. Director???
