Yavarum Nalam

Yavarum Nalam (13B: Fear Has a New Address in Hindi & 13-Padamoodu in Telugu)
The Tamil theatrical release poster as Yavarum Nalam.
Directed by	Vikram Kumar
Produced by	Suresh Balaje George Pius Rajesh Sawhney
Written by	Vikram Kumar (Both) Neelu Iyappan(Tamil Dialogues) Abhinav Singh Kashyap (Hindi Dialogues)
Screenplay by	Vikram Kumar
Story by	Vikram Kumar
Starring	R. Madhavan Neetu Chandra Sachin Khedekar Deepak Dobriyal Murali Sharma Dhritiman Chatterjee Sampath Raj Saranya
Music by	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy Tubby Parik
Cinematography	P. C. Sreeram
Edited by	Sreekar Prasad
Distributed by	Big Pictures
Release date	6 March 2009 (2009-03-06)
Running time	137 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil Hindi
Budget	₹6 crore (equivalent to ₹11 crore or US$1.5 million in 2017)[1]
Box office	₹16 crore (equivalent to ₹29 crore or US$4.0 million in 2017) (Tamil) ₹56 crore (equivalent to ₹100 crore or US$14 million in 2017) (Hindi nett)[1][2]

Yavarum Nalam (English: All are fine, titled 13B: Fear Has a New Address in Hindi and 13-Padamoodu in Telugu) is a 2009 Tamil language psychological horror film written and directed by Vikram Kumar. The film stars Madhavan and Neetu Chandra in the lead roles. Produced by Suresh Balaje and George Pius, the film was simultaneously filmed and released in Hindi as 13B: Fear Has a New Address with a slightly different cast. It was also later dubbed into Telugu as 13-Padamoodu, while re-shot a few scenes with Ravi Babu . The film's soundtrack was composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, while Tubby-Parik provided the background score. Released on 6 March 2009, the film received highly positive reviews from Tamil critics and mixed reviews from Hindi ones. Rediff called the film as one of the best films of 2009. ^[3]

Plot

Manohar moves into a new apartment, 13B, on the 13th floor with his family, fulfilling his life's biggest dream. But they encounter a series of small but strange incidents (such as milk getting spoiled), which are regarded as inauspicious by his family but shrugged off by an excited Manohar. The elevator in the apartment works for everyone in the building except Manohar, which bothers him.

The women in the family get hooked onto a new TV show Yavarum Nalam (Everyone Is Well, or Sab Khairiyat in Hindi). The show is about a family eerily similar to Manohar's who have also just moved into a new house like they have. As the serial unfolds, Manohar notices that the incidents that happen in the serial are a reflection of what is happening to his family. Things like his sister graduating, his wife getting pregnant and later suffering a miscarriage are all also shown in the serial. Priya is saved by their longtime family friend and doctor, Dr. Balu. The rest of the family remains oblivious to the similarities and Manohar prefers it that way to avoid panic. He also notices that his camera takes distorted pictures of him while he is in the apartment, but not while he is outside the apartment.

Things start taking a turn for the worse in the serial and Manohar becomes terrified that the same might happen to his family. He now wants to know who is behind the making of the TV show. One day Manohar finds the blind man's dog trying to find something in the sand, Manohar stops the dog and takes it to its owner. Later that night he asks his wife about the latest episode of the serial, she reveals the same story to him. On this, Manohar digs the ground on a rainy evening and finds a diary. He then unravels a terrifying secret: the apartment they live in shared their address with a house where a family of eight (similar to Manohar's family) was butchered back in 1977. It was the family of a TV news anchor named Chitra. On the day of Chitra's engagement, an ardent fan (Shriram Shinde in the 13B version) of Chitra wanted to stop the engagement and failed in doing so. Disheartened, he committed suicide. Subsequently, all members of Chitra's family were murdered with a hammer in a single day. The blame rested on the lunatic brother in the family, as he had been seen with the hammer last. The police officer investigating the case also committed suicide by hanging himself in the same house.

Manohar and his policeman friend Shiva meet the madman brother Senthil, who apparently goes crazy after seeing the TV show in an asylum. They then meet Chitra's former fiance Ramchandar, who tried to plead for Senthil's innocence because he got covered in blood while he hugged the bodies of his family. After researching one night, Manohar has a nightmare of the 13B murderer climbing the stairs to kill his family. When Manohar tries to climb the stairs, he always ends up on the 2nd floor. He goes to the hall and witnesses the climax of Yavarum Nalam when they are showing the murderer's identity: Manohar's face is shown as the killer.

What follows is the climax: the 13B murderer is Dr. Balu, who sees the family members' faces as the serial family members. It was he who killed them in the 1970s on behalf of his brother, the spurned fan, and also killed the police officer who caught him red-handed. Manohar kills Dr. Balu.

The story ends with Manohar living a normal life with a new dog in the family; the milk is not getting spoiled anymore. They bring Senthil home and the lift in the apartment finally works for Manohar. Next day,when Manohar uses the lift,he receives a call from Dr Balu, who says that while the 13B family haunts the TV, he haunts Manohar's phone and the lift falls.

Cast

also starring Suhasini Muley, Vinay Jain, Amar Upadhayaya and Meera Vasudevan.

Production

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

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

Idlebrain.com gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated, "First half of the film is little boring. The way 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 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."^[6]

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."^[7]

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."^[8]

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."^[9]

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."^[10]

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?"^[11]

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."^[12]

Release

The satellite rights of the film's Tamil version were secured by Kalaignar. The film's Tamil version was given a "U/A" certificate by the Indian Censor Board, but the Hindi version got a "A" certificate from the Censor Board.

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.

See also

• List of ghost films

References

External links

• Yavarum Nalam on IMDb
• 13B Movie Trailer
• 13B Movie Review on BIGisBIG.com, BIG Pictures Official Blog.
• BehindWoods.com: "Maddy Vikram combo to be a thrill ride", by Behindwoods News Bureau, 18 December 2007