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 a puja 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.