The dead seek revenge

The two and half hour horror flick directed by Vikram Kumar known forhis award winning short film- "Silent Scream", tries very hard to losethe expected clich s in a Bollywood movie of this genre but succeedsonly partially. Instead of abandoned bungalows or scary folks 13 B usesthe idiot box aka the television as the medium of horror transmission(does The Ring ring a bell to some extent?)

13B Genre- Horror,
Cast-R. Madhavan, Neetu Chandra, Sachin Khedekar, Murle Sharma, Poonam Dhillon.
Director- Vikram Kumar

The story unfolds with a family of eight moving into a plush newapartment purchased by the two brothers via a 20 year loan. Exciting asit maybe for the family, soon the younger brother played by R.Madhavan, discovers that strange and bizarre events keep occurring inthe new apartment- messed up milk and impossible to hammer in a nailfor mounting pictures of God. Worse still, is the fact that theseevents happen identically as depicted in a new television soap closelyfollowed by the women at home, yet as one can expect, none notice thisfact, save Madhavan.

Knowing that leaving the house would be a financial suicide for hisfamily, Madhavan decides to keep quiet about these mishaps and seeksthe help of his police officer friend to unravel the mystery.

Madhavan plays his role well and is aptly supported by the innocentwife played by Neetu Chandra. The entire cast has stuck to their partsbut major chunk of the burden is carried by Madhavan. Though the filmmarches forward in good stride for its two and half hours , are songsreally a necessity here?

Shedding some aspects like a womans blood curling scream,( whichdamages the ear drums more than scaring audience), dusty and isolatedmansions, chanting of mantras unknown to the common man, darksurroundings, creaking doors and windows , instead using a technologyas a medium of horror, 13 B bravely tows Bollywoods Horror genre intothe 21stcentury. As to its title- 13B sticking to the accepted numberof weird and evil happenings: one can only be so brave.

Despite the crews good efforts some places are more humorous thanscary Madhavan and his police officer friend calling the women tofind out what happen in the soap! The plot unfortunately is predictableand therein lays 13Bs failure to make it to the top slot.

With its few chills and some twists 13B somehow manages to be includedin the Horror rung a not so horrifying horror flick.