Alone Review

What is it all about?

‘Alone’.. not really.. This bollywoodised expose to the Thailand import of the same name starring the B-town Horror queen Bipasha Basu and introducing TV star Karan Singh Grover tries to be smarter in its body but the spirit is possessed by the cliche, conventional, b-town horror genre scare tricks in a sluggishly-paced, forgettable horror.

The third by helmer Bhushan Patel ( Ragini MMS 2 and 1920 Evil Returns) marking the debut of production banner Panorama Studios ‘Alone’ is worthy only of limited and regular weekend following.. things beyond looks scary making it a routine and not much haunting horror experience.

The Story

Based on 2007 Thai horror of the same name helmed by Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom - the duo Asian champs of the smash hit ‘Shutter’. It is also believed that the film’s plot is loosely based on Agatha Christie's book, Elephants Can Remember.

Sanjana (Bipasha Basu) is happily married to Kabir (Karan Singh Grover) in Mumbai. One day Sanjana receives a call informing about her mother’s accident in mysterious circumstances. Sanjana returns to Kerala to find that her dead conjoin twin Anjana (Bipasha Basu) refuses to rest in peace.

Who separated the inseparable sisters and why is the spirit not resting in peace is explained in the b-town regular routine scary episodes with a twist in the end but that comes too late to act as a repent for the ‘promotional’ promises of scare and erotica it made to represent.

What to look out

The sultry Bipasha Basu sizzles. The chemistry between Karan and Bipasha is steamy. Music by Ankit Tiwari and Mithoon is another saving grace. The picturisation of ‘Katra’ especially raises your hormones.

‘Alone’ doesn,t disappoint on the technical front, in fact tries its best to maintain the interest when the narration fades be it Prakash Kutty’s marvelous capture of Kerala. Background score is adequate.

Karan makes a decent debut. Zakir Husain lends good support.

What Not

Promoted as a horrex drama but sadly till the first half neither of the two make an impact on the starved ‘target’ audience. Things move in the promised direction during the second half but its overindulgence on the standard scary elements seen in every horror flick strips it’s from the promised erotic ‘spine chiller’ tag.

Conclusion: Some years ago movies like ‘The Ring’ etc changed the game of Asian horrors. RGV starting with ‘Raat’ and ‘Kaun’ during his regime did an exemplary work with 'Bhooth’ and 'Darna’ series (nowadays he is a horror on social media network that’s another matter). Indian horrors still searches for innovation. Fortunately for the genre Bipasha has now emerged as the queen. The sultry bong bala is the no.1 choice but unfortunately both for Bipasha as an actress and the B-town horrex genre things are found to be stripped for any innovations in the end turning ‘different’ from what it was told when the ‘promotions’ began