Alone Thread (Update of Box Office on Page 1) - Page 6

Movie Review: Alone- Filmfare

Director: Bhushan Patel

Cast: Bipasha Basu, Karan Singh Grover, Neena Gupta and Zakir Hussain

The easiest way to scare your audience is to push in a jumpy scene. It's the kind of scene where the ghost/apparition suddenly appears on screen with the aid of a jerky camera movement and really loud insertion of background score. It always works like a charm. Unfortunately, Alone has a dozen of these. You'll find yourself squirming on impulse on random occasions, but that's it. That's the limit of the horror in Alone. It would've made a great 4DX film though.


The story is borrowed from a Thai horror movie of the same name. Conjoint twins fall in love with the same boy. One of the twins dies from a separation surgery and the other twin is then haunted by both guilt and paranormal activities. So there are two Bipasha Basus playing the dead and alive twins. There's Karan Singh Grover playing the love interest. That serves as a nice turn of the table in the battle of the sexes context. Let the man be the object of sexual desire. Feminist hurrahs aside, rest of the story plays out like the one billionth revisit of The Exorcist. Indian horror movies are now in a dead and tired mould. For every movie's supernatural occurrences, the solution comes from a tantric and his big book of 1000 ways of exorcising evil spirits'. It's time to move on to a better concept. Shake things up like the The Ring and The Grudge did for Japanese and Hollywood horror.



While the writers and directors of horror movies need a rethink, the actors can't really do much but follow the filmmakers' lead. So Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover dig deep into their respective convictions and give good performances. Both look absolutely stunning in the frames. The erotic portions of the movie, stuff like the song Katra and the romantic number Awaara are the only actual portions where they actually manage to impress. Rest of the way, they're at the mercy of the sad script and screenplay. Zakir Hussain in a supporting role is funny. Once his character is possessed, he becomes the funniest horror movie bad guy ever.



To look for logic in a horror film is really a futile attempt. But when a story has umpteen dysfunctions it really becomes hard to invest any emotion into it. The only reason why Alone will work is for its erotic packaging. Those looking for a genuine scary movie will only get bad rehashes of scenes from The Conjuring and other popular Hollywood fare. But if you like Bipasha Basu, and you think Karan Singh Grover is hot, then this film will definitely not give you nightmares.

Alone review - Komal Nahta

Posted on January 16, 2015 by komalreviews

Panorama Studios and Global One Studios' Alone (A) is a suspense horror love story. Sanjana and Anjana are conjoined twins, living in Kerala. During their school days, they meet Kabir who soon develops a liking for Sanjana while treating twin sister Anjana as a friend. Anjana resents this discrimination because she feels, both of them look alike and, therefore, Kabir should not be so fond of Sanjana alone. Anyway, Kabir goes abroad for further studies and returns after some years. Before returning to India, he telephones Sanjana (Bipasha Basu) and asks her to come to the airport to receive him. However, the jealous Anjana (Bipasha Basu) refuses to go to the airport. Since Sanjana is madly in love with Kabir, she decides that the two sisters, joined at the hips since birth, should now be separated by surgery. As bad luck would have it, Anjana dies during the surgery. Sanjana is unable to forgive herself as she holds herself responsible for Anjana's death.

Sanjana has since gotten married to Kabir (Karan Singh Grover) but she leaves Kerala with her husband as Anjana's memories won't let her live in peace. The couple settles down in Bombay but Sanjana is unhappy that Kabir doesn't have time for her as he is always busy in his office.

One day, the couple has to go to Kerala as Sanjana's mother (Neena Gupta) has been hospitalised. Sanjana and Kabir, obviously, live in the former's house. There is an outhouse which Sanjana had ordered to be kept locked always as Anjana's memories are in the outhouse. Strange things start happening as Sanjana gets visions of a ghost in her maternal home. At first, Kabir dismisses them off as a figment of her imagination but he soon seeks help of psychologist Namit (Zakir Hussain) who also runs a healing centre there.

Suddenly one day, Sanjana seems to be perfectly normal. Namit feels, this is unusual and his suspicion of something being amiss is further fuelled when Sanjana and Kabir's pet dog, Leo, starts barking angrily at Sanjana who, incidentally, had had another encounter with Anjana in the outhouse. It appears that Anjana's spirit has entered Sanjana's body. This theory gets further credence when house maid Jaya (Nilima Priya) sees Sanjana behaving oddly with dog Leo.

Another house maid, Mangala (Sulbha Arya), who is Jaya's mother-in-law, performs apuja to rid the house of the ghost. A tantrik (Sanjay Sharma) is also called home to conduct a puja.

What happens thereafter? Does Anjana's ghost leave Sanjana alone? Why is Anjana's ghost haunting the house? Or is there a ghost at all? Was Sanjana justified in feeling guilty about Anjana's death? Or is there more to it than meets the eye?

The film, which is an official remake of the Thai film of the same name, has an interesting story, the novelty being the point of conjoined twins. The suspense, which is revealed in the end, is excellent. Sheershak Anand and Shantanu Ray Chhibber have penned an adapted screenplay which keeps the audience engrossed right from the start till the end. No doubt, there is not much novelty, besides the angle of conjoined twins, but this novelty itself is exciting. To add to the excitement, the screenplay writers have put in a lot of sex and steamy scenes in the drama. Horror scenes are quite chilling. Shagufta Rafique's dialogues are very appropriate.

Bipasha Basu does a splendid job of both, Sanjana and Anjana. She looks sexy and glamorous, acts wonderfully and also exposes uninhibitedly. Karan Singh Grover makes an impressive debut on the big screen. He looks handsome and has screen presence. He acts very ably. Zakir Hussain is effective as psychologist Namit. Sulbha Arya makes her presence felt very well. Nilima Priya is truly natural as Jaya. Neena Gupta has her moments. Sanjay Sharma is effective as the tantrik. The dog lends able support.

Bhushan Patel does a very fine job as director. His narrative style keeps the audience involved and engrossed and he also caters to the baser instincts of the viewers by adding a good dose of sex. Music is a plus point. Katra katra' (composed by Ankit Tiwari and penned by Abhendra Kumar Upadhyay) is the best song. Awara' (set to tune and penned by Mithoon) and Chand aasmaan' (composed by Jeet Ganguly and written by Sandeep Nath) are also entertaining songs. There is another song, Touch my body' (by Raghav Sachar and Dr. Zeus), which is a redone version of its original version. Choreography of three songs (by Howard Rosemeyer) and of Touch my body' (by Ahmed Khan) is sexy. Amar Mohile's background music is a plus point. Prakash Kutty's camerawork is very nice. Abbas Ali Moghul's action and stunt scenes are effectively scary. Apurwa Sondhi's production designing is realistic. Devendra Murdeshwar's editing is sharp.

On the whole, Alone is an entertaining fare and will do fair business at the box-office. If, in spite of this, it is unable to make profits, it will be due to its for adults only' certificate because of which recovery from sale of satellite rights will not be substantial.

Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover Alone - Movie Review: Scary in bits

Cast: Bipasha Basu, Karan Singh Grover and Zakir Hussain

Director: Bhushan Patel

Run Time: 120 minutes

Stars: 3 stars

(Disclaimer: All the views expressed here by the reviewer are solely based on his or her individual opinion and has nothing to do with the opinion of others in all respects.)

Synopsis: The plot of the film revolves around a tale of two co-joined sisters who have vowed not to get separated from each other but in course of time as one of the sister fall in love with a handsome hunk, one sister insist to get herself separated and one of the sister get dies during operation. How a spirit starts haunting the other sister after many years and why is all that viewers can expect to discover while watching the movie. The element of mystery has been kept intact till the end and this works wonderfully in favor of the movie.

Performances: Karan Singh Grover acts well owing to his acting experience on small screen and has been able to flaunt his physique in the movie wherever required to give a treat to his immense female fan following. Bipasha Basu as a true Bollywood horror queen has also given a decent performance as twin sisters and manages to scare you surprisingly well in some parts of the movie with some awesome expressions. She has improved remarkably in the acting department to give those shivers down your spine and also impressed with her beauty as always.

Analysis: If you have already view the original Thai movie "Alone", then this Bollywood adaption will appear just passable, but if not, the movie is indeed scary in bits to a great extent. Although, the trailer shows a heavy dose of skin show in terms of steamy scenes between the lead pair, the movie is not at all a horrex one with considerable attention given to plot, music and creating innovative sequences to generate horror among the viewers.

Also Watch:- Alone Movie HD Photos, Wallpapers and Posters

Review overview
Ratings

Summary

The movie is only a one time watch and may appear offence viewers who are expecting it to be a sensible entertaining good film. You can even skip it for a lone evening walk!

3

They fooled us, didn't they? The two semi-clothed bodies writhing and moaning in the scenic water of Kerala made us believe this is an erotic thriller.

"Alone" is actually a very funny film. A kind of inside joke where the characters pretend to be trembling with terror and apprehension. But here's the secret " they are actually shaking with laughter.

First off, "Alone" is a remake of a Thai film. That perhaps explains why there is much of Bipasha's thighs', plus other body parts, in the film. And for all of Bipasha's fans, there is good news. There are two of her to savour. Tragically, one of the twins is a ghost (a dead giveaway, if ever there was one), who doesn't quite care for her sister's lust interest.

Mr. Lust Interest is played by the film's in-house beefcake Karan Singh Grover. Mr. Grover, god bless his pumped up muscles, is so stiff in all the wrong places that he makes the furniture in a dentist's waiting room look like designer furniture in a five-star lounge.

A lot of the playing time of this atrocious scare-farce goes into Mr. Grover entwining his limbs into his leading lady's thigh-land'. We thought such muscular miracles only happened in the circus. How wrong we were! Come to think of it, we thought this was an erotic thriller. It turns out to an idiotic thriller, the thrill element provided more by the gosht (meat) than the ghost factor.

"Alone" moves at its own weird volition. The narrative slackens to a slumber and then suddenly wakes up with a start. The plot is a gravity-defying triangle about a woman, man and a ghost, who is no dost'.

The frights could have flowed fast and furious. Instead, what flows is a fatuous plot about two girls who get caught in a squabble over a wooden toyboy.

Bipasha tries hard to infuse life into the inert plot. She fails, though we can't blame her. Even the stunning Kerala locales look listless when weighed against the cartoonish terror and lust of a pair which knows they are getting into the wrong train.

Forget horror. This is a comedy.

Review By Subhash K. Jha

First review I saw on Twitter.

Woah. That was harsh😲😆 Is it that bad? I'll give it a go tomorrow.