MOVIE REVIEW: PIZZA

HELLO READERS!!!

Indian Tamil thriller film written and directed by debutant Karthik Subbaraj. It stars Vijay Sethupathi alongside Remya Nambeesan, while Aadukalam Naren, Jayakumar, Pooja and Simha played supporting roles. The story is about how around a pizza delivery boy lands in a mysterious circumstance and how it works a dramatic change in his life.The film, produced by C. V. Kumar and featuring music by Santhosh Narayanan, was the first Tamil film to feature 7.1 surround sound. The film released on 19 October 2012, to very positive reviews, going on to become a critical and commercial success and has won lot of critical acclaim as well.
Michael Karthikeyan (Vijay Sethupathi) is a pizza delivery boy who lives with his girlfriend Anu (Remya Nambeesan). She is an aspiring novelist who is writing a horror story and is researching for the same, whereas Michael does not believe in supernatural powers. Anu keeps telling him that he would soon realize the presence of supernatural beings. At first, Michael is confused and scared, and his fears are confirmed when he comes to know his boss, i.e., the Pizza restaurant owner Shanmugam's (Naren) daughter is possessed by a spirit. One particular day, Michael goes out to deliver a pizza to a customer and returns back to the restaurant in a state of shock. When his boss questions him, Michael explains that he had been to deliver pizza to a customer named Smitha (Pooja) in a bungalow, and Smitha got murdered suspiciously. Further, Michael had been locked inside the house by the "spirit". When the murdered woman’s husband Bobby (Simha) arrived, he was also killed by the ‘spirit’. When a couple of policemen arrive at the bungalow, Michael believes that Anu had requested them to help him, but they reveal that four people had been killed in that house - Smitha, Bobby, their young daughter and Michael's partner Anu. When the police disclose that Michael is a suspect and attempt to arrest him, they are dragged into the house and killed, and Michael runs back to the restaurant. While Michael is not convinced that Anu is dead, his friends at the restaurant and Shanmugam start realizing that they had never seen Anu; they also observe that Michael's home does not have any evidence that he lived with Anu. Further, it is also revealed that the haunted bungalow had witnessed the untimely deaths of a married couple, their daughter, and two policeman, whose ghosts Michael had earlier interacted with. This leads to the obvious questions: Is Anu Real? Was she a ghost or simply an imagination of Michael? Meanwhile, Michael continues his search for Anu, has constant health issues, and seems to be disturbed by ghosts and supernatural entities.
It is revealed in the climax that the entire ghost story was simply fabricated by Michael and Anu. Shanmugam had instructed Michael to deliver a box (containing a stash of diamonds, unknown to Michael) which Michael was carrying in his Pizza bag. By happenstance, Michael learns of the diamonds and formulates a plan with Anu using which they can not only steal the diamonds but also deceive Shanmugam and his friends at the restaurant by convincing them of his innocence. So, Michael concocts a story in which he "leaves" the Pizza bag at the "haunted" bungalow which Shanmugam would never enter into, thanks to his fear of supernatural powers. Meanwhile Anu has moved to Bangalore with her belongings and the diamonds, and has obtained fake documentation using which Michael and Anu can settle abroad. When it seems that all is well, Michael goes for delivery for another house - the bill amount happens to be exactly the same as the one for the story he fabricated, and in fact, the entire house resembles the one in the story he had concocted. As he realizes this, the doors and windows of the house close automatically and he stands in state of shock and the movie ends there leaving the viewers to decide his fate.

Regards,

Surendran.R