What is it all about?
Borrowing even scares from Kollywood, UTV Spot Boy and Getaway Films ‘Pizza’ - namesake remake of 2012-Tamil stunner directed by Karthik Subbaraj has nothing lying in beneath for any ‘sixth’ sense in this said ‘supernatural’ arrangement. Thanks to its ‘differently’ peppered ketchups and its thriller helpings in the second half makes up for those creaky and unimaginative exercises to scare during the first. Though not much to ‘eerie’ about even with those 3D glasses, but certainly a ‘smart’ delivery as far as the trill factor is concern.
The Story
Nothing much ‘Conjuring’ in the scary eerie genre writers Akshay Akkineni and Karthik Subbaraj choose to stay away from adding any significant horror toppings to this hit Kollywood Pizza to deliver the story of Kunal (Akshay Oberoi) a Pizza delivery boy who lives with his wife Nikita (Parvathy Omanakuttan) a wannabe ‘horror’ story teller while pati dev is more scared of his boss (played by Rajesh Sharma) than his wife spooky believes.
One night a delivery order in a bungalow leaves him strangled inside the house locked with increase in spirits reciprocating in decrease in the delivered Pizza pieces.
‘Possessing’ all the routines a child, playing toys, a mysteriously looking woman, a man armed with an axe, disconnected telephones, a girl doing a reverse somersault (yeah the exorcist effect that eludes all since ages), dead bodies hanging on the floor, waiting in bathtubs, and yes of course a torch.
A turn off for ardent followers but a turn on for those fainthearted who gets scared even by those TV horror shows.
Nevertheless the writers do maintain the balance by an interesting windup (divulging the details will act as spoilers) to compensate on the eerie failure and they succeed to a lot of extant.
What to look out for
Akshay Akkineni the assistant to Bejoy Nambiar debut as full time director is impressive. He knows his job and handles the situations well. Slowly and surely he builds the momentum and the interest of the audience to come to a surprise end that differentiates this horror from others.
His caliber improves in the second half thanks to the writings. He manages to take out some good work from the lead cast. Akshay Oberoi introduces himself as an actor with maturity. He handles the fear, helplessness on his face with command. Certainly a talent to look out for.
Parvathyy Omanakuttan is charming. Dipanita Sharma is fantastic. Arunodaya Singh is very good. Rajesh Sharma is fine as always.
The technicalities are fine enough to lift the proceedings. Tapas Nayak sound provides the desired effect. Jayakrishna Gummadi’s camera does the talking as required. Sreekar Prasad’s editing is crisp.
What not
Bollywood is already bombarded by Kollywood, Tollywood remakes in the mainstream genre. It is a bit ‘scary’ to find even horrors are now getting borrowed from south. Yes there is no ‘Raaz’ to the fact that many Hollywood inspirations lies beneath Bollywood horror stories. The new age makers like Akshay Akkineni should offer hope but sadly the horror over here too is old school in this remake there is nothing new or fresh.
It lacks the oomph, the sexual titillations a normal Hindi speaking audience looks for in a horror. Whatever is the international demand but in an Indian Hindi spoofy, horror tale music plays a big part and here Saurabh Kalsi, Mikey McCleary and Shamir Tandon fail to give a ‘hit’ number.
Conclusion: Smoky in its eerie bills but spicy in its thrilling frills, Akshay Akkineni’s ‘Pizza’ delivers to the genre’s hungry fainthearted souls.
Rating ***
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