'Alone' review: No more than two decent scares in this criminally uninspired film

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Buried somewhere beneath all the shrieks and scares in the ominously titled horror film Alone is a black comedy straining to reveal itself. Think about it: one half of a pair of conjoined twins demands to be surgically cut off from her killjoy sister because she won’t let her have any alone time with her boyfriend. Too bad that scenario adapts less effectively when applied to this flatulent fright-fest about a love triangle between two humans and one ghost.

Sanjana (Bipasha Basu) finds herself being repeatedly visited by the angry spirit of her dead twin Anjana (Bipasha, again!) when she returns to the Kerala home she grew up in after her mum (Neena Gupta) becomes unwell. Ragini MMS 2 director Bhushan Patel relies on all the usual tropes- from creaking doors and barking dogs to rearranged dolls and creepy reflections – delivering no more than two decent scares in this criminally uninspired film.

The pesky servants prove smarter than Sanjana’s himbo husband (Karan Singh Grover) who takes forever to figure out that something’s gotten into his missus, even when she switches overnight from nagging, whining sad-sack to frisky kitten. I lost count of just how many times he says “Pata nahin…mujhe kuch samajh nahin aa raha.” Predictably, it’s down to a mantra-chanting baba to exorcise the spirit, but even a last minute twist can’t energize this dead script.
Bipasha Basu, despite playing a double role here, offers fewer expressions than Neena Gupta who’s paralyzed for most of the film. The perfunctory ‘hot scenes’ between Bipasha and her muscled co-star can’t seriously be reason enough to invest in a ticket.

I’m going with one-and-a-half out of five for Alone. You’ll wish you’d stayed home instead.

[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6XpxAX-eeU]