As though watching poor Amarr Upaddhyay as a constantly air-played character in a daily soap in Madhavan’s home is not scary enough, the soap’s plot seems to have a direct bearing on Madhavan and his family.
A jolting and original premise for a spook-fest shot (by H Laxminarayan and P C Sriram) in chromatic colours, gets us as close to the basic feelings of fear, foreboding and doom as cinema is capable of getting.
Vikram Kumar knows his Manoj Night Shyamalan and Steven Speilberg well enough. There are no attempts to create false terror through intrusive sound effects. As in Ram Gopal Varma’s Bhoot we feel a supernatural presence in Madhavan’s home without being subjected to ghoulish visuals. But Bhoot erred by withholding too much of the horror beneath the calm surface.
In 13B there are enough moments of aggravated suspense and terror to keep you on the edge of your seat without toppling over. The entire premise of the happenings in a soap dictating the lives of those who occupy the larger space outside the 71-inch screen is explored with a fair degree of technical and intellectual finesse.
Blessedly, the narrative isn’t the lead laden with thoughts on the spiritual axis that binds human beings with God and His opposite. However, the film does prompt us to question the way destiny destroys our plans of a blissful ‘normal’ life. Beyond that it focuses on telling a tightly-woven tale of domestic terror.
No parts of the film are amateurishly designed. As far as creating an ominous eerie atmosphere is concerned the director does so without one creaking door or ear-shattering sound effect.
That’s quite an achievement.
The performances echo the normal even-pitched sound design. Madhavan keeps his pivotal role of a workingclass man whose life is suddenly dictated by television on an even keel. Neetu Chandra as his wife blends beautifully in the fearful fabric. The rest of the cast is inconspicuous.
But Dhritiman Chatterjee as the blind neighbour is frightening. Ever wondered why a blind man is so scary in a supernatural thriller? As he struggles with the dark, so do the other characters caught in the other-world where logic and rationale fail.
Mercifully, 13B looks believable even when looking into the world of the supernatural.
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