
Genre: Horror
Release Date: 18th July, 2014
Cast: Akshay Oberoi, Parvathy Omanakuttan, Dipannita Sharma, Arunoday Singh, Rajesh Sharma, D’santosh, Hussain Dalal, Omkardas Manikpuri, Sonali Sachdev
Director: Akshay Akkineni
Producer/s: Siddharth Roy Kapur, Bejoy Nambiar
Music Director/s: Mikey Miccleary, Saurabh Kalsi, Shamir Tandon
Plot: Pizza delivery boy Kunal’s mundane life takes a horrifying turn when he is sent to make a delivery at the home of a family with a dark secret. Will Kunal be able to overcome the evil that lurks in the shadows and live to tell his tale? Pizza is a supernatural thriller with a delicious twist. Being served at a cinema near you. Soon.
Rating: 2/5 Stars (Two stars)
Star cast: Akshay Oberoi, Parvathy Omanakuttan, Dipannita Sharma and Arunoday Singh
Director: Akshay Akkineni
What’s Good: At its core it was an interesting idea but unfortunately the film’s last scene could not justify its climax.
What’s Bad: The lack of 3D use, the ghost’s makeup seemed straight out of a bad Halloween party and let’s not get into how many scenes have been borrowed from international thrillers.
Loo break: Many.
Watch or Not?: Pizza 3D is definitely not a memorable watch. Right on your face horror with too many borrowed thrills, it is only in remote parts that the film shows inspired work. The innovative-ness of the climax came as a pleasant surprise and as I was beginning to believe that Pizza attempts something new and doesn’t float in mediocrity, the last scene slashed my hopes. Missing this film won’t be the worst thing after all.
User Rating:
Kunal (Akshay Oberoi) works as pizza delivery boy and lives with his wife Nikita (Parvathy Omanakuttan) who is a writer by profession, and specializes in writing horror thrillers. The constant aura of spooky runs their house. Kunal experiences the thrill of ghosts that his wife keeps rambling about when he gets trapped in a haunted house, when he goes to deliver a pizza.
Traumatized by the incidents and marred by experience, Kunal ends up losing his mental peace, his calm demeanor and even his wife who goes missing. Is she dead or possessed by the spirits, trapped in the same house? Does Kunal find her is what the story tells us.
Pizza 3D Review: Script Analysis
The film’s script is a solid one for a change. While I have not watched the original film on which this is based, at its core it is a great concept. A pizza delivery boy is married to a writer who writes horror stories. She keeps insisting that his moment of fear will come. And it actually does when the guy gets trapped in a haunted house when he goes to deliver a pizza.
Like commercial cinema thrive on clap traps, commercial horror thrives on some staple thrills. This film has all of them: creaking doors, child back-walking, running from one room to another, eerie laughter, spooky songs, this film has not left any of the regulars. Yet they miss out something vital. The freshness in horror films lies in proper execution which this film fails in.
Though I was drawn into the story in bits and pieces, faulty writing in parts displeased me. Despite knowing there is a ghost or a bunch of ghosts in a specific room, why will someone keep returning there: only to get more marred. It is clearly a loopy writing. While the take on superstitious thinking is well thought, I think if the film was fashioned differently it would have a better impact.
The second half becomes too plain for my taste. It got boring, the build up to the climax was half baked and eventually when the climax comes you begin to think the film isn’t half as bad but the superfluous chill of the last scene seemed so efforted that the better parts of the film also lost charm. I don’t know what disappointed me more: butchering of a good concept or cheap usual thrills. Probably it was the former. A good story gone to waste always hurts more.
Pizza 3D Review: Star Performances
Akshay Oberoi is woody in his acting and that dilutes the film’s impact too. He at no point seemed breathlessly scared or painfully traumatized. The plain look on his face was all he could give throughout the film; even when 3 ghosts were after his life and also when his beloved wife went missing.
Parvathy however was better between the two. Despite limited screen time, she establishes herself very impactfully.
Rajesh Sharma whom we have seen in better roles doesn’t disappoint but isn’t exactly his best.
Dipannita and Arunoday both have fleeting presence in the film at which they were average.