Reviewed by Suresh Babu (sureshbabupula@gmail.com)

Movie review – 13B

Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Story – screenplay – Direction: Vikram K. Kumar

Production: Adlabs Films Ltd & Big Pictures

Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Background Score: Tubby & Parik

Camera: H Laxminarayan & P.C. Sriram
Editor: Sreekar Prasad

Cast: R Madhavan, Neetu Chandra, Sachin Khedekar, Murli Sharma & Poonam Dhillon

Tag line: FEAR HAS A NEW ADDRESS

Theme:  Newton’s III Law – “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”.  The reaction may be immediate or it may be late. It may be invisible but communicated and recognized through a certain medium. So, for every problem there will be a solution.

The story:

The story begins with Manohar (R. Madhavan), a civil engineer and a typical middle class urban male who moves to new apartment along with his family – wife Priya (Neetu Chandra), his mother (Poonam Dhillon), college going sister Divya, his elder brother Manoj and his sister-in-law along with their two kids. Ironically, the flat is on the 13th floor and the flat number is 13-B.

Manohar begins to experience some strange happenings in his new home. Milk getting curled, the elevator which does not work when he is alone, his distorted picture when clicked from mobile, walls not getting drilled through nails or drillers and causing injuries, and a neighbors’ dog refusing to enter the flat. To add on to it, the women folk in the house are glued with a new TV soap named “Sab Khairiyat” (All is well) from the very first day of moving to the new home. This soap airs on channel 13 at 13.00 hours. Incidentally one day Manohar happens to be at home and the TV turns on and serial starts depicting the incidents that have been happening to Manohar and his family. Manohar is the only person in the family who is aware of the fact that the serial connect to his real life, to an extent of Manohar himself becoming the TV soap addict, just to know what next. The joyous moments on the show take a turn for the shocking incidents which could spell an end for Manohar and his family.

Could Manohar stop the destruction happening in his life? How is his family related to the TV serial in real life?  Do spirits exist? If so, do they communicate though they are invisible?

Is manohar the savior of justice on behalf of spirits?

Plus points:

Story is the first good thing to observe in the film. Though it represents some old TV horror serials, it has its own typical screenplay to attract the audience. Secondly, the camera work is absolutely brilliant. (Especially in the scenes where dog is involved, lift refusing to work, madhavan’s tensed moments)

Next comes the performance by R Madhavan who ruled the movie with his brilliant emotions and action. The best scene in the movie ( according to me)  was  when Madhavan curiously watching TV serial to see what happens next eventhough his wife met an accident and to be admitted in hospital.

13B is a new approach to story-telling while maintaining the spooky momentum and unfolding the suspense. The debutant director Vikram K Kumar has kept it simple, redefining the genre of horror. The tag line “ Fear has a new address”  is interesting.

Lowlights:

The movie itself resembles a thrilling TV serial. It starts with a very slow narration but catches the grab in the second half. Family members other than Madhavan can’t identify that the TV serial is depicting their real life.

Applause:

The movie has received rave reviews with just ‘average’ rating from leading websites and newspapers in India; but it was appreciated well from international media ( like Newyork Times etc) and the audience response to the movie is  extremely positive.

It so happened that a Hollywood production company reserved the remake rights of ‘13B’ to film it in English.

Sequel (??):

Audience will get a question at the end of the movie if a sequel of ‘13B’ is expected because there is a point raised at the end saying that TV need not be only communication for spirits, it may be anyone, say a mobile phone.

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