As concoctions and inspirations go, the movie 13 B is one of the most intriguing cocktails that confront the cine-audience. If we are to describe the movie in singular words, I will choose.. bold, novel, suspenseful (though not edge of the seat thriller stuff), rich, compact, intense. You get the idea, the movie is done pretty well. It’s not one of the great movies to hit the screens this year, but it is certainly one among the intense and certainly watchable ones out there.
Once again, kudos to the backroom team, the art direction, sets, editing, screenplay and direction are quite good and the BGM fits in nicely in most scenes. The cast is simple and effective, the characters are concise yet involved in the whole picture.
At the heart of the movie is a concept that many find hard to come terms with, the evil-ghost spirit concept. The movie is not intended to make you believe they exist, the movie does not even attempt establish the validity of such existence, it merely takes you on a ride where just like Gods and angels are assumed to care for us, evil and spirits are out there to complete unfinished business. What is different from your regular B-grade scare-crow movie is that there is a decent attempt to show civility, while there is blood its not gory, while there is fear its not unbearable, while there is an incredulity that washes your thoughts its not strong enough to not give the story a chance.
One other idea that is somewhat novel in this movie is that, the spirits use living characters as their vehicles to complete their unfinished business. So while they scare these characters they don’t put them into coma or beat them to death like other senseless movies.
The first half was no nonsense, it gets right to the story, no candies, no hulchul… a nice big family moves into the stomping grounds of a once famous mansion that has since been demolished for the monstrosity also known as apartments. The family is subjected to some special treatments along the way, getting bucket loads of good and pitchers of bad news. The lead character, Manohar (Madhavan) has done a credible job. He does what he does best, which is put in decent effort and put out the best output that he is capable of, which he has done in this character. Mannu and a bunch of his family members move into the house and immediately he faces a streak of events that make him believe some alter-force could be in effect in their apartment. A very lively participant that is not a living object in this movie is your very own idiot-box. Precisely around 1pm everyday, only in Mannu’s house a serial seems to air, the soap is eerily similar to the events that are taking place in Mannu’s life. At one point the soap overtakes and stops resembling current events in his life and starts providing future events too. And oh what a coincidence those exact events that happen in the serial seem to happen to Mannu’s family.
The only leap of faith that the director asks you to take is that, spirits and alter-egos not only exist but they are next-generation ready, that they can communicate to you, not in the typical door slamming, tree falling, car failing methods.. but through your television and mobile phones.
The eerie resemblance of events in the serial to his life, makes Manohar travel the path of an investigator and the first half ends with a nice punch. I honestly thought the movie had been on for 2 hours, but it was barely 70 mins in, credit to the director for just cutting out any non-required scenes and packing it all with suspense and thrill. The second half takes a not so typical or atypical tone, as Manohar goes on a quest to get behind the serial and its story. He has a friend in need among the cops to help him out.
Along the way, we learn about the family that may have lived in their land a few decades back and they follow the trails of a gory massacre and eventually the killer gets punished.
The movie is simple and fresh, high marks for editing, story, screenplay and direction, good performances by the cast and overall a decent venture and not a bad way to spend your money. As with any movie, you have to allow the director some leeway and if you are prepared to do that then this movie will be a good watch. Don’t expect a swush-buckler but this certainly a good movie and worth watching once. Rating : B-
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