Alone

Cast: Karan Singh Grover, Bipasha Basu, Zakir Hussain

Director: Bhushan Patel

Producer/s: Kumar Mangat Pathak, Abhishek Pathak, Pradeep Agarwal, Prashant Sharma

Music Director/s: Jeet Ganguly, Ankit Tiwari, Mithoon

Plot: Conjoined at birth, Anjana and Sanjana were twin sisters who lived by one promise made to each other – ‘We will always be together. We will never separate’. Mysterious circumstances lead to the death of one while the other survived. Years later, the ghost of the dead comes back to haunt the surviving sister. Why was the promise broken?

Characters:

Sanjana: Bipasha Basu
Sanjana is an over-possessive wife, married for six years. She loves her husband Kabir more than her own life and does not want anything or anyone to come in between them, which lead to constant fights between her and Kabir. Sanjana is very secretive and closed as a person and does not share her problems or issues easily. Her biggest fear is to lose her loved ones and hence somewhere blames herself for Anjana’s death. The guilt of her sister’s death still haunts her and draws her into a spiral of horror.

Kabir: Karan Singh Grover
Kabir is a protective responsible husband. He loves Sanjana dearly but is bothered by her interference and possessive nature. He also gives his job immense priority and dislikes compromising on it. Kabir tries hard to make Sanjana feel better when she is guilt-stricken about her sister’s death. He will eventually be the one who will stand by her through this haunting tale.

Synopsis

When her mother meets with an accident, Sanjana is forced to return to Kerala from Mumbai along with her husband Kabir.

Sanjana, is the survivor between the conjoined twins, and when she comes home after years she is thrown face first into her old life which is both painful and haunting.

Sanjana’s return to Kerala not just brings back distant memories, but it seems as if it also brought back her sister Anjana’s spirit.

Sanjana is the only one, who feels Anjana’s (Bipasha) presence and sees her face in mirrors and reflections.

Sanjana (Bipasha) shares her plight with Kabir (Karan Singh) but he believes that it is merely love for her sister and the guilt of losing Anjana that is leading to these hallucinations.

But soon these delusions grow into spine tingling incidents bringing Sanjana at the verge of a breakdown. Kabir takes help from his psychiatrist friend Namit only to realize that it is rather beyond science. Is the existence of Anjana’s spirit real or it is just a figment of Sanjana’s fervent guilt loaded imagination.

Slowly these hallucinations give way to a shocking discovery of a horrific secret conjoined with fear, fate and a most passionate twisted love.

Alone Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Mohanlal.

Director: Shaji Kailas.

What’s Good: A crisp runtime that makes one suffer less.

What’s Bad: The idea in itself. The confusion about what to focus on. Mohanlal’s conviction to make this work.

Loo Break: Stay in there and watch some reels maybe.

Watch or Not?: There is no other polite way to say this, but don’t. Never thought I would say this for a Mohanlal movie.

Language: Malayalam (with subtitles)

Available on: disney+ Hotstar.

Runtime: 122 Minutes.

User Rating:

Amidst the pandemic, a man named Kalidas (Mohanlal) with his fancy mask moves into a new apartment in a very posh high-rise building. Soon he begins to observe some supernatural elements around him and he gets on the job to find out what it is. A murder mystery is unraveled leading to one of the most problematic climaxes ever.

Alone Movie Review: Script Analysis

The pandemic and what followed is a classic setup for filmmakers to write and make movies on. Some have even tried their hands and managed to churn out good stories. The most recent half-baked attempt starring Nayanthara was Connect. But if you thought that half-baked attempt and the rock bottom is close enough, let me show you Mohanlal unfortunately exploring the deeper rock bottom with a movie that rarely qualifies as anything but a script like some drunk person wrote all the blurry mixed idea on a piece of paper he found at the bar.

Alone as the name suggests as just one actor acts all the time and God somebody save Mohanlal, please. The movie opens like it is the smartest of them all. A man with too many colourful t-shirts and obsessed with liquor enters a posh society. The logic leaves the building the very minute he enters a room numbered 13A and he is surprised that it is ghosted. It had to be sir! Now there is a pandemic ongoing and one must look at the idea of only keeping Mohanlal in frame and making every character a voice speaking over calls or from behind doors or as ghost in the void. Alone never even tries to bring in some substance because it is so invested in telling a story that is boring and bizarre.

Screenplay written by Rajesh Jayaraman, Alone is the funniest mystery movie you will see because there is a man who is jumping and walking like an animated character bending every system possible talking like a cult leader wearing beach t-shirts. He enjoys when he hears someone break somebody’s bones and says ‘good job’. What is this even? Also, the aforementioned ghost has no say in the entire case only to realise that their existence was questionable extent. The end twist is so done to death that you can literally ignore the climax. But the biggest question is where is the consequence to a man with so big criminal instinct? He drives his Batmobile looking car into a vibrant oblivion like he has fans for doing that. No one can decode what this movie is.

Alone Movie Review: Star Performance

Mohanlal is busy giving us one after the other worst performances and this is the limit now. The actor was definitely forced to do this because there is no other explanation to what he does. Everything about this character looks so forced that he is not believable for even a minute.

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars (Two and half stars)

Star Cast: Karan Singh Grover, Bipasha Basu, Zakir Hussain

Director: Bhushan Patel

What’s Good: The use of all possible creepy elements such as wooden doors that make noises, swing and an overall horrific location. Interestingly, Bhushan Patel manages to infuse a good amount of suspense in the film and stretches it to the very climax even though one starts getting the hints quite early on. The visual effects are quite decent and it seems Patel is getting the hang of it with every film.

What’s Bad: Well, I would say a wrong timing of intimate scenes that nearly breaks the link of a ‘could have been’ gripping tale. Also the spine chilling moments don’t come very often and more often than not it is the background score that gives away what’s coming, thus leaving you all ready for the scene.

Loo break: Won’t miss much! Relieve yourself!

Watch or Not?: Alone is once again not an out and out horror film and so it won’t satiate your scary needs or give you nightmares. If you are a fan of Bollywood’s horror films then this one is worth your watch. Don’t even think of comparing it to its original Thai film by the same name, because I couldn’t watch that one without closing my eyes every two seconds. Alone is a decent weekend watch if you have nothing else to do.

User Rating: 

Sanjana and Anjana are conjoined twins who swear to be together no matter what. Right from their childhood, the twins seem too share distinct personalities and while Sanjana is usually the loving and caring one, Anjana is somewhat spoilt by this. As years pass by and the twins grow old, the more and more attention that Sanjana gets, it creates insecurities for Anjana and jealousy steps in when both fall for the same guy, Kabir (Karan Singh Grover). Kabir falls in love with Sanjana and that’s unbearable for her twin sister.

Well, after years of losing her sister in an operation to separate them, Sanjana who is happily married to Kabir returns to her hometown Kerala, only to be haunted by her sister’s ghost. Whilst hurting Sanjana what are her sister’s motives? Is it just Kabir or something else? Watch to find out.

Alone Review: Script Analysis

I have to agree even though adapted; the film’s story is quite a breath of fresh air with a haunted twin as the focus. Alone has its own spine-chilling moments and in certain scenes the visual effects such as the ‘rotating bed scene’ almost takes you back to the Exorcism of Emily Rose. The story is well-kept and with a tinge of suspense it is gripping in parts.

The only problem is that once again like most horror stories this one too relies on the same old tricks and more often than not they are cheap thrills, nothing that give you a haunting experience. Use of Kerala backwaters as the scary location is a good move. Bhushan Patel gets better with his story and certainly he has gone a notch higher from his last Ragini MMS 2.

All in all the story is a winner for the hero considering both the twins are not only obsessed with him affectionately but sexually too! At one point it seems as though all the ghost wanted to do was to sleep with Karan Singh Grover since that is the only thing that happens when the ghost possess a body.

Overall this one disappoints since it does not really break Bollywood’s streak of coming up with average, not-so-nerve-wrenching dramas.

Alone Review: Star Performances

Bipasha Basu is known to be the ‘horror queen’ and she does maintain this image of hers with Alone. The actress other than flaunting her hot bod in the normal avatar does a much better job when she takes up the ghostly garb. She is scary but sadly don’t let her speak is what I would say. Beware she might scare you off with her obsessive erotic thoughts. Well, after Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, all men may get scared of this one.

Karan Singh Grover debuts with this film but he still acts just like it is a TV serial drama. More often than not, he is stone faced in the film but the actor does best at flaunting his body and well that’s all for his character.