Apart from the name and the genre there is not much of a similarity between the first and the second part of the ‘Pizza’ franchise. In fact the producer would have wanted to establish ‘Pizza’ as a brand for all the horror movies from the production house; apart from that, there is nothing much to construe. I went into the movie with little expectations as the pre-release buzz for this one was average and came out with nothing much lingering in my mind. Just an average or a below average movie that passes by without creating much of an impact that it was meant to create.
The story is about a struggling writer who finds its hard to get his first book published. His girlfriend and a few other friends are his only companions who support him in this cause. After his father’s demise, he finds out that his father owns a villa in Pondicherry and has hidden the fact from him. He decides to sell off the property in order to make money to publish his work. As soon as he moves into the villa, he is obsessed with its quaint charm and strange things start happening in his life. How does it affect him and his girlfriend forms the rest of the story.
The plot had so many open ended questions and the thrill that a film in this genre was meant to create simply fell flat as there were hardly any surprise elements. The only silver lining in the script was a minor twist at the climax and that was a bit of a cliche. The director tries to nudge the story every now and then with some special effects and sound but hardly succeeds in his attempt as he had nothing solid in the script.
I cannot help but compare it with the first part of Pizza that had a decent story and a gripping narration that worked big time and also Karthik Subburaj provided the much needed jerks in almost all the scenes with his brilliant screenplay. But here, it seems the newbie, Deepan had no clue about what he was trying to do. Had he mimicked some Hollywood thrillers, he would have made a decent movie, but he failed in that respect too. He tried to mimic a part of ‘Conjuring’, but due to lack of detailing in CG and VFX that attempt went for a toss and the director’s hat flew over the roof!
Performances from everyone including the lead cast, Ashok Selvan and Sanchita was average. Almost everyone in the movie tried to underplay their role due to the movie’s theme and so none of their performances stood out.
Music and editing were the two departments where the movie scored remarkably well. Santosh Narayanan’s brilliant title score and BGM were too good for this story. Hope he gets much better scripts in the future to showcase his work in a better way. Editing by Leo John Paul was slick and kept the movie well under 2 hours. Cinematography by Deepak was good in parts, but nothing much to brag about.
An attempt to make a slick and taut thriller under 2 hours is to be lauded but the director has to realize that horror movies need a solid premise upon which the narrative has to be carefully knitted - sound and visual effects should only compliment that! Better luck next time!!
Verdict: Below Average
Rating: 1.5 / 5
.jpg)