Yavarum Nalam (2009)

Excellent adaptation.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I have not written a single IMDb review since I've been using this site for 9 years now. I was never motivated to, until now. This movie was so bad that I want whoever that was responsible for the making of the movie to refund me the 2 hours of my life I spent watching this garbage. Nothing is left to the imagination. Every single oh-my-god-that-was-freaky moment is obviously pointed out with a zoom in and "don don don" music. And some of the "freaky" moments were forced and laughable. The soundtrack/background music was horrible and awkwardly placed. At times they played the creepy music when nothing creepy was happening. And it even drowned out the horrible voice dubbing. WTF is up with dubbing anyways. It give the movie a cheap feel like it was made in the 70's. And lastly the ending was just awful. If you see this movie in your local video store, rent it and hide it. You will be doing a public service hiding this movie to the rest of the world. To sum up this movie in 3 letters. WTF.

Horror genre over recent years has undergone a massive transformation. No longer it is a straight forward plot meant to scare the living daylights. These days one gets to witness the horror neatly blended with suspense to generate that extra twist and keep the audience in nail- biting mode. Hey, the genre manages to stay alive innit?Clearly the director has taken inspiration from Poltergiest (ghost- directed by Steven Spielberg) and blends in Japanese horror flick formula's into it. Indeed the effort and the execution deserves a standing ovation and it wouldn't be exaggeration to state that 13B would put RGV to shame. Seriously, Phoonk seems to be child's play in comparison. The mid-80's era is portrayed brilliantly. The settings are perfect and do take note of the Doordarshan's B&W intro. Nostalgia indeed!Ж Madhavan:: "BOLLYWOOD!" - this guy is screaming on the top of voice and can somebody at least take notice this time around? He is a consistent and a brilliant performer. 13B has two lead actors - Madhavan and the telly, rest everyone goes out of focus. Ж Deepak Dobriayl: Now this guy is to watch out for. Every time I see him he doesn't cease to surprise me. Be it Omkara, Shaurya, Dilli-6 or 13B - he manages to successfully pull-off a range of roles/ characters with nothing short of perfection.Ж Neetu Chandra & Sachin Khedekar:: Neatly compliments to the plot.Ж Poonam Dhillon:: She needed a better comeback vehicle. Her counterpart in the plot, Suhasini Mulay seemed elegant in comparison. Ж Dritiman Chatterjee:: Why was he there? Beats me!Ж Others do their parts as per the demands of the storyline.What deserves a special mention, even though the telly leads the storyline by a few minutes, it still manages to create an edge-of-seat excitement. And yes, the shock value is immense. A few holes in the plot can be safely ignored.Verdict:: Go for it!

I have no idea what movie the rest of these reviewers saw, but it wasn't this one. We watched it because it was a NefFlix recommendation, probably because we've watched a number of foreign horror films.So, where do I start with this one? All of the dialogue sounds looped. It got so bad we actually were thinking about watching the dubbed version (and I usually HATE dubbed versions!) since we were going to hear looped dialogue anyway. Only there isn't a dubbed version... Stupid characters abound... Coincidences also abound... There is one exposition-heavy scene that actually has a character saying "I'm so confused" -- you and me both, bub... There are TWO musical numbers for no apparent reason... Oh, yeah, and at the end, NOTHING makes any sense.Now, I will say there is a movie in here somewhere. This just isn't it.

Don't expect the movie to be frightening or scary in any way. One of the best aspect of the movie is that the story line keeps you apprehension level high and makes you expect a scary scene, but there are hardly any. A thriller that can be watched as a time-pass movie but don't expect anything extraordinary. I also did not expect romantic songs in between.. totally unasked for! There are some scenes which are usually shown in psycho thrillers, but not enough to entice the audience to think it is. The suspense is maintained until the end - one more good point, but is revealed in a typical Bollywood style.In conclusion, the movie is successful at grasping the audience's attention, but never gives them anything extraordinary. Hope people living on 13th floor don't get nightmares though!