13B (film)

Plot

Manohar moves into a new apartment, 13B, on the 13th floor with his family. They encounter a series of small but strange incidents, which are regarded as inauspicious by his family but shrugged off by Mano. The elevator in the apartment works for everyone in the building except Mano, which bothers him.

The women in the family become hooked on a new TV show, "Sab Khairiyat" / "Yavarum Nalam" ("Everyone is Well"). The show is about a family very similar to Mano's, who have also moved into a new house. As the show unfolds, Mano notices the incidents happening in the serial reflect what is happening to his family: his sister graduating, or his wife Priya getting pregnant and later suffering a miscarriage. Their longtime family friend and doctor, Dr. Balram, also known as Balu / Dr. Shinde, saved Priya. The rest of the family remains oblivious to the similarities. Mano goes to the production company of the serial to inquire about it. To his horror, he discovers that Yavarum Nalam / Sab Khairiyat is a different TV show. The serial that his family watches appears only in his house, every day, at 1:00 PM (13:00).

Back at home, Mano finds an album with photographs of the family from the serial, as well as one man he does not recognize. He then unravels a terrifying secret: the apartment they live in shared its address with a house where another family of eight was murdered in 1977, and that the house was built in the same place where Mano's apartment stands. It was the family of a TV news anchor, Chitra. On the day of Chitra's engagement, an ardent fan, Sairam, attempted to stop the engagement because he was obsessed with her. He warned that he would kill everyone without leaving a piece of them. But, failing to convince them, he killed himself the very next day. It was revealed that all members of Chitra's family (including Chitra too) were murdered with a hammer on the same day as Sairam's death. The blame rested on the lunatic brother Senthil / Ashok in the family, as he had been seen with the hammer last. The police officer investigating the case seemingly committed suicide by hanging himself in the same house.

Mano, along with his Inspector friend Shiva, meets Chitra's former fiancé, Ramachandran / Ram Charan, a High Court defense lawyer who tried to plead for Senthil / Ashok's innocence. Later, they meet Senthil / Ashok at an institute for the mentally disabled. After researching one night, Mano has a nightmare of a murderer climbing the stairs to kill his family. He goes to the hall and witnesses the climax of Yavarum Nalam / Sab Khairiyat when they are showing the murderer's identity: Mano's face is shown as the killer.

Not wanting to risk his family's life, he tells Balu / Shinde to book tickets and send his family members somewhere without telling him, so they would be safe. When Mano and Shiva go to Balu / Shinde's house, Mano requests to be locked up to prevent him from harming his family. It is at that point that he suddenly spots a hammer similar to the one he saw on his TV in the yard. He understands a horrifying truth and manages to convince Shiva to let him out.

Balu / Shinde arrives at Mano’s home and gives the flight tickets to Mano's wife. Suddenly, the television starts when he comes home, and he sees Chitra's spirit, which triggers hallucinations of Chitra and her family in the form of Mano's family. He starts attacking all of the members in the house, and Mano arrives at the right time to save them. The murderer is revealed to be Balu / Shinde. He killed the family in 1977 after the death of Sairam, his brother, and also killed the police officer who had found evidence that could lead to him. Mano kills Balu / Shinde, and this is revealed to be what the TV had shown earlier: that Mano was innocent, and Balu was the real culprit.

The story ends with Manohar living a normal life with his family. They bring Senthil / Ashok home, and the apartment's lift finally works for Manohar, while Priya becomes pregnant again. When Mano uses the lift the next day, he receives a call from Balu / Shinde, saying that while the family had haunted the TV, he now haunts Manohar's phone. As the call ends, the elevator comes to a halt.

Cast

• R. Madhavan as R. Manohar aka Mano
• Neetu Chandra as Priya, Manohar's wife
• Murali Sharma (Hindi) / Ravi Babu (Tamil) as Inspector Shiva
• Sachin Khedekar as Dr. Shinde (Hindi) / Dr. Balu (Tamil)
• Sanjaiah Bokaria as R. Manoj, Manohar's elder brother
• Amitha Rajan as Deepa, Manoj's wife (voice dubbed in Hindi by Balvinder Kaur)
• Poonam Dhillon (Hindi) as Sushma, Manohar's mother
  • Saranya Ponvannan (Tamil) as Shanthi, Manohar's mother
• Dhritiman Chatterjee as Mr. Kamdhar (Hindi) / Mr. Thyagrajan (Tamil)
• Deepak Dobriyal as Ashok (Hindi) / Senthil (Tamil)
• Sampath Raj as Advocate Ram Charan (Hindi) / Advocate Ramachandran (Tamil)
• Roshan Abbas (Hindi) / Khushbu (Tamil) as Show Host
• Rohini as TV Reporter
• Amar Upadhyay (Hindi) / S. N. Vasanth (Tamil) as Mohan
• Suhasini Mulay as Mohan's mother (Hindi)
• Meera Vasudevan as Chitra, Doordarshan newsreader (Hindi)
• Iswar Srikumar as Inspector Eashwar Gandhre (Hindi) (voice dubbed by Mayur Vyas)
  • Sampath Ram (Tamil) as Inspector Ilangovan
• Rachana Maurya (special appearance)

Production

Development

The director of the film, Vikram Kumar teamed up with cinematographer P. C. Sreeram, editor Sreekar Prasad, sound designer A. S. Lakshminarayanan and art director Sameer Chanda, who also happen to be National Film Award winners. The Hindi working title was Channel.

Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, while the lyrics in Hindi and Tamil were penned by Neelesh Mishra and Thamarai respectively.

• Hindi
• Tamil T-Series

Hindi

Tamil

Release

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

''13B''

Times of India gave the movie a 3.5/5 rating and said, "Watch out for some zippy cinematography, a stylized monochrome tint, and some snazzy editing. Great timepass. Go for it."

Idlebrain.com gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated, "The first half of the film is a little boring. The way the story unfolds in the second half is good. But the flashback episode and the climax is not shot in a gripping manner. The plus points of the film are the story, cinematography, and Madhavan. The negative points are inconsistent screenplay and runtime. Though it has an interesting plot point, 13B fails due to lack of gripping narration." Rajeev Masand rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote, "13B is the kind of convenient thriller where you do get a twist ending, but the kind in which anything goes. The logic behind the twist and the back-story to the supernatural premise is so convoluted, it's hardly clever."

Hindustan Times gave the movie 2 out of 5 stars and stated, "If you like horror films, this one's par for the course, especially in the first half, where Vikram K Kumar uses the TV set for an interesting premise, the actors do their bit and the camera picks up suitably weird angles." Rediff.com rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and said, "One simply wishes it didn't have to be such hard work getting to the point, for the filmmakers as well as the audience."

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and said that "On the whole, 13B is interesting in parts, not in entirety."

Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express said, "Forget the irritating item numbers. Stay with the film, and you will come to a smart little end, and leave half-smiling, half-wondering: is this what the future holds?" Film Journal International wrote in their review, "J-horror-styled supernatural thriller from India doesn't have the gore or intensity of the real thing, and for many in the mainstream, that's a relief. Low-budget-looking but effective, with a great central gimmick."

Box office

The Hindi version grossed only 10 crore and was a commercial failure, according to Box Office India. The Tamil version was a hit, grossing around 13 crore.

References

References

1. "13B".
2. "13B: Fear Has a New Address – Movie". Box Office India.
3. (15 June 2009). "BIG Pictures' 'Yavarum Nalam' Completes 100 Days 'Yavarum Nalam' Grosses Rs 13 Crore At The Box Office".
4. "Watch 13-Padamoodu".
5. "Top Tamil Films of 2009".
6. (22 August 2021). "16 Best Indian Horror Movies Of All Time, Ranked".
7. "Chennai365.com: "Yavarum Nalam Movie Photo Gallery"".
8. "13B Movie Review: Critic Review of 13B by Times of India".
9. "13b Hindi film review - idlebrain.com - Madhavan & Neetu Chandra".
10. "House of horrors".
11. (6 March 2009). "Review: 13B".
12. "Spooky 13B works out in the end".
13. (6 March 2009). "13B Review - Bollywood Hungama".
14. "13 B, Fear Has A New Address (Movie Review)".
15. "Film Review: 13B".
16. "13B - Movie".