Yavarum Nalam (2009)

Redundant and unnecessary.

Just perfect...

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Discovering in the middle of 2011 that Ghost Horror films could really get under my skin,thanks to the flawed,but nerve-wrecking Insidious leaving me completely spooked for weeks!.During a recent search online to find any details about,possibly over-looked Bollywood Horror movies,I was thrilled to find a film which seemed to contain almost everything that I was looking for,and led to me getting set to discover the mystery of 13B.The plot:With his family experiencing a good deal of recent successes with their current high profile jobs, Manohar decides to buy an extremely expensive flat(number 13:B),where he and his family can at last feel,that they have truly "made it".Shortly after the family has started to settle in their new surrounding, (and also after Manohar has brought a brand new TV for his mother,so that she can stay transfixed to her many day time soaps.)Manohar discovers a "fault" in the building,when the lift seems weirdly unable to work for him at all.(Unknown to Manohar,the lift works perfectly fine for all of the other residents of the building.)Being left to put the finishing touches to the "prayer room",the family experience an unexpected setback,due to the walls suddenly feeling as if they have been made of solid stone,with the nails not going even a centre-meter into the wall!.Feeling stressed out over the current problems with the flat, Manohar's mother tells the rest of the family to relax for a moment,and join in watching her favourite soap of the day.To everyone's surprise,when the clock hits 13:00,the TV seems to suddenly get a mind of its own and refuse to change to the channel that the family are desperate to watch.Giving up on seeing even the briefest glimpse of their favourite TV show,the family soon become completely gripped on watching a "new" soap about a family that move into an extremely expensive flat,which eerily seems to be mirroring their own lives…View on the film:For the contrasting settings of reality and the TV soap that Manohar begins to suspect holds the balance to the very survival of his family,director Vikram K. Kumar, (who also co-wrote the goosebumps inducting screenplay with Abhinav Kashyap)films each of them in a strongly unique style,with the "soap" being given a realistic sheen,which helps to make it look as if it is shot and edited in a matter of hours.Going in the complete opposite direction,Kumar and cinematography P.C Sreeram give the world of Manohar (played by a brilliantly uneasy R.Madhavan) and his family a cold industrial appearance,with the scenes of Manohar in the flat/lift on his own having a fantastic strong feeling that something could suddenly appear to fill the empty space of the rooms around him at any moment.Along with the industrial vibes,Kumar also makes the flat feel terrifyingly isolated,with even the moments when a family member dares to leave the flat having a haunting atmosphere of the flat always towering above them.As the second of only two songs featured in the film started to play over the end credits, (complete with a music video of bikini clad girls!)I began to realise how Kumar and Kashyap had impressively kept one or two plot holes, (If any ghosts are reading this review and wondering how they can get my attention,I would strongly advise them not to make me feel like I am having a complete mental breakdown!)hidden from their spooky house of (flats) cards,by smartly giving the movie an oddly almost episodic style,with the gradually terrifying feel bubbling away and slowly intensifying as Manohar's family begin to learn the grisly secrets of 13B,which in the end causes their lives to be permanently scared.Final view on the film:A stunning,cleverly done,nerve-wrecking spooky Horror film.

I finished this movie in 28 minutes. That was too long, I guess. If you have the ability to totally suspend your disbelief in slightest common sense and ignore pathetic over/under acting, you may appreciate this effort. (What kind of an English is this? Showing off?)I am too stumped to see how so much money can be poured in such a ludicrous project. (Once again, what kind of English is this?)I guess that is the effect of watching a Civil Engineer use the hammer and a DOCTOR do the things that the doctor does in this movie(?).I had hopes from this, considering the cast. They were dashed by the time the elder Bhabhi feeds breakfast to her kids. (EXACTLY One Nibble each from two sandwiches.)

I saw it with minimal expectations and after I saw the film, I googled it thoroughly to make sure that it was not an "unofficial Hollywood remake". And to my surprise, not only is it an original screenplay, they are making a potential big budget Hollwyood movie on this plot.Madhavan said in his interviews that the film is more in the thriller genre than horror. I would say that it is in the rarely employed "refreshingly original" genre of Bollywood movies.The background score gels with the pacing of the film, the cinematography is just right for the mood and content, it is definitely very well-written and the director has done a good job of not just thrilling or scaring us but adding human dimensions to his characters so that we care about their outcome in the climax. And the ensemble cast - Madhavan does a good job of carrying the film on his shoulders as the main protagonist; Poonam Dhillon is a welcome addition to the group of screen moms; Sachin Khedekar, Murali Sharma and Dhritiman Chaterjee are all effective; the 2 standouts for me were Deepak Dobriyal and Neetu Chandra. If she had a yesteryear superstar for a parent, Neetu Chandra would have had a lot of opportunities to display what I believe is tremendous potential. Deepak Dobriyal is one of the most dedicated, passionate and talented actors out there and he shows it in this film. The direction that Bollywood is headed in gives me reason for optimism that they both will be doing a lot of amazing work in the years to come. So, I hail it as a landmark film and then give it an 8. Why oh why? Well, what's this obsession with stuffing songs when totally unwarranted? Waste of time, effort and money. Take those 15-20 minutes worth of songs out, flesh out some parts of the screenplay better and edit it a little more precisely - you have a landmark film. But nevertheless, an extremely entertaining film.

Don't expect the movie to be frightening or scary in any way. One of the best aspect of the movie is that the story line keeps you apprehension level high and makes you expect a scary scene, but there are hardly any. A thriller that can be watched as a time-pass movie but don't expect anything extraordinary. I also did not expect romantic songs in between.. totally unasked for! There are some scenes which are usually shown in psycho thrillers, but not enough to entice the audience to think it is. The suspense is maintained until the end - one more good point, but is revealed in a typical Bollywood style.In conclusion, the movie is successful at grasping the audience's attention, but never gives them anything extraordinary. Hope people living on 13th floor don't get nightmares though!