Man has become over addicted or dependent on technology like mobile, internet, or say television and they have no time for human concerns so there is no reason for them to care for the unknown world. The makers of 13B has exploited these scenarios and have made the unknown world a bit smarter to interact with the known using the man made technologies say Television.
The start of the film shows the making of a television, one gets an intuition that it has to do something with TV for sure and this question persist till the movie reaches it's intermission.
At first it finds very funny or rather foolish as to how technologies are being used by unknown world to interact with the known. But it somewhere down the line convinces you on that front as the story telling capability of the director is above par. That's the major USP of this project 13B.
Vikram K. Kumar, the director is to be applauded for carrying the subject solely on his shoulder and come up with a very unusual murder mystery ever in Indian cinema. To brief on the plot, Madhavan and his family moves to their new apartment (13 -B). Things change mysteriously after they transit to the new house, the daily milk spoils while boiling, elevator doesn't work for Madhavan alone so he has to use stairs to reach the 13th floor and vice versa. TV remote control doesn't work after 1pm in the afternoon and the females in the house have to see a serial show which they find it interesting. This TV serial is the gist of the plot which I do not wish to reveal.
It is not a horror movie, sadly it could have been a gem of a one but still it's a very good murder mystery. The plot interestingly is treated in a very practical way rather showing Tantriks, havan pooja, psychotherapists and so on. Though these tricks are always visible in any RGV horror flicks.
This is an apt role for Madhavan and he enacted the character well. Also to mention Murli Sharma to come up with subtle lines providing scope for humor in between some real tense scenes. Neetu Chandra has nothing to do much and she played her part decently. Poonam Dhillon, a stylish buxom mother was a total mismatch, she never looked Madhavan's mother, also Poonam looked younger than her elder son.
Frames used for the movie were high class, specially the ones used in Black and white it gave a feel of watching some international movie. Cinematography was good, somewhere it reminded of RGV's Bhoot specially the Lift motion scenes from the top angle and also the wide shot of housing complex taken from outside.
Music was a huge letdown, a total disappointment from Shankar Ehsaan Loy for the soundtrack. Also the background music was very loud and not subtle which became one of the major drawbacks of this intelligent plot.
Also there are some questions in my mind which remained unanswered after the movie was over. Still not to take away the good work done by this filmmaker. Really a commendable effort.
This era is the Golden Era of Hindi cinema, where every now and then one gets to see different stories popping out of different filmmakers. It's worth watching 13B as it gives a new dimension in Hindi Cinema handling murder mysteries. I loved it.
Verdict: 3 out 5
The start of the film shows the making of a television, one gets an intuition that it has to do something with TV for sure and this question persist till the movie reaches it's intermission.
At first it finds very funny or rather foolish as to how technologies are being used by unknown world to interact with the known. But it somewhere down the line convinces you on that front as the story telling capability of the director is above par. That's the major USP of this project 13B.
Vikram K. Kumar, the director is to be applauded for carrying the subject solely on his shoulder and come up with a very unusual murder mystery ever in Indian cinema. To brief on the plot, Madhavan and his family moves to their new apartment (13 -B). Things change mysteriously after they transit to the new house, the daily milk spoils while boiling, elevator doesn't work for Madhavan alone so he has to use stairs to reach the 13th floor and vice versa. TV remote control doesn't work after 1pm in the afternoon and the females in the house have to see a serial show which they find it interesting. This TV serial is the gist of the plot which I do not wish to reveal.
It is not a horror movie, sadly it could have been a gem of a one but still it's a very good murder mystery. The plot interestingly is treated in a very practical way rather showing Tantriks, havan pooja, psychotherapists and so on. Though these tricks are always visible in any RGV horror flicks.
This is an apt role for Madhavan and he enacted the character well. Also to mention Murli Sharma to come up with subtle lines providing scope for humor in between some real tense scenes. Neetu Chandra has nothing to do much and she played her part decently. Poonam Dhillon, a stylish buxom mother was a total mismatch, she never looked Madhavan's mother, also Poonam looked younger than her elder son.
Frames used for the movie were high class, specially the ones used in Black and white it gave a feel of watching some international movie. Cinematography was good, somewhere it reminded of RGV's Bhoot specially the Lift motion scenes from the top angle and also the wide shot of housing complex taken from outside.
Music was a huge letdown, a total disappointment from Shankar Ehsaan Loy for the soundtrack. Also the background music was very loud and not subtle which became one of the major drawbacks of this intelligent plot.
Also there are some questions in my mind which remained unanswered after the movie was over. Still not to take away the good work done by this filmmaker. Really a commendable effort.
This era is the Golden Era of Hindi cinema, where every now and then one gets to see different stories popping out of different filmmakers. It's worth watching 13B as it gives a new dimension in Hindi Cinema handling murder mysteries. I loved it.
Verdict: 3 out 5
