13B

Vikram K Kumar's 13B did what a horror movie needs to do – gave goosebumps at every turn in the first half. It is shot in monochrome and the background score puts a chill into the mundane.

But as it moves into flashback mode and an agitated Madhavan tries to save his family, there are too many twists and the story starts losing credibility.  The story is all over the place and the eerie quality created right at the start is soon forgotten.

An abnormally happy joint family (do they even exist these days?), move into a posh apartment numbered 13B.  The milk curdles daily; Manu’s (Madhavan) pics taken on his camphone inside the apartment are always distorted; they can’t drive a nail in the puja room; the elevator never works only for Manu forcing him to take the stairs (terrifying indeed!!!); the neighbour’s dog refuses to enter their apartment and the television automatically switches to channel 13 at 13:00 hours to a program that is exclusively aired for their family.

Though the women in the house are ga-ga over the show Sab Khairiyat Hai, it is only Manu who realizes that their life is dictated by that show.  He drags into this supernatural mess, his police officer friend Shiva and starts putting together the pieces. A gory massacre of a family; a murderer still out free while the family’s mentally ill brother (Deepak Dobriyal) is accused of the crime; a spurned lover and the television’s part in the crime is what they uncover.

The blindman and the rest of the cast’s roles were trivial while Madhavan was the only one with something to do in the movie.

Give it a miss. Doesn’t captivate.