Movie: Game Over
Rating: 3/5
Banner: Y Not Studios
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Anish Kuruvilla, Sanchana Natarajan, Ramya Subramanian, Vinodhini Vaidyanathan and others
Dialogues: Venkat Kacharla
Music: Ron Ethan Yohann
Cinematography: Vasanth
Editor: Richard Kevin
Art: Shiva Shankar
Producer: S. Sashikanth
Directed by: Ashwin Saravanan
Release Date: June 14, 2019
Taapsee has become synonymous for different movies in Bollywood in the recent times. She has been delivering engaging thrillers and her latest “Game Over” has generated lot of buzz with its trailer.
Let’s find out its merits and negatives.
Story:
Swapna (Taapsee) is gaming professional. She works from home. She leads a secluded life but she panics when she is in dark room. Because she is suffering from post-traumatic disorder. The trauma is result of an incident in the past.
What is that incident and why she is getting ‘anniversary reaction’?
Artistes’ Performances:
The film has less characters and almost entirely revolves around Taapsee and a maid. As a girl with a traumatic past and one who panics and one who takes on the perpetrators, she gets the act neatly. She has put in okay performance, nothing exceptional.
Vinodini who has played house maid has given the best act. In other roles, Anish Kuruvilla gets noticed.
Technical Excellence:
The film has excellent technical skills. Cinematography is first rate; the cameraman has created the mood of a video game-like act and the dark visuals have really created gloomy effect.
Sharp editing is a major asset. Background score is riveting. So is the sound design
Highlights:
Concept
Second Half
Technical aspects
Crisp runtime
Drawback:
Dull Middle portion
Some patchy scenes
Analysis:
Taapsee starrer “Game Over” truly has a storyline that is not seen on Indian screen before, though basic points like home invasion, and aftermath of a girl’s post-traumatic behavior is not new to us. “Game Over” uses all these elements yet presents a different thriller.
Though it begins on the lines of a routine serial killer on the prowl themed movies or home-invasion Hollywood thrillers, it later proves to be totally different from everything we have seen earlier.
This is mix of many genres – psychological thriller, ghost thriller and revenge drama yet gives us a feel of an original idea in the end.
Much of the movie looks unclear whether all those fragmented scenes are real or dream. Tapsee constantly dreams. No wonder her name is Swapna. These dreams only make scenes in the end.
The movie is set up like a video game, all the check points (dreams) give clear picture only when the game is over.
At times it is confusing and some scenes are repetitive but it requires careful watch to get the picture right.
The mix of various genre elements like ghosts, parallel lives, video game setups, etc have provided novel feel while giving some déjà vu feel as well. Still, it keeps us hooked to the screen all the while.
The director maintains thrill factor to the end, though main plot already comes out in the first half.
The film is finally about revenge, women empowerment and it also has message about crimes against women.
However, to add some emotional feel, the director has included the character of Amrutha’s (who was gruesomely murdered) spirit angle to this story, which completely goes beyond logic and also spoils the mood and lengthens runtime. These portions are not handled well.
Also Taapsee trying to stick to her secluded home despite the fear of getting attacked by these gangs doesn’t make sense. But if we look at this point that the movie is like a ‘game’ that the protagonist, who is also a game developer, has to fight the villains in a specified region, it does make sense.
Even the second half of the movie is totally set up up like a game, she keeps on dreaming, and every dream is like a check point. When she has lost point, she has no other option but to fight to survive.
Thus the movie turns out to be this: a woman must gather courage to fight against the criminals who are trying to harm her, and should not regret later that I should have not done this or that.
In the end, the film turns out be to something different within the thriller genre. It has good concept, novel screenplay and engaging moments.
Bottom-line: intelligent thriller
(Venkat Arikatla can be reached at [email protected])
