Game Over Review: Entertaining Every Step of the Way!

Inventiveness is the name of the game and Taapsee Pannu’s latest feature Game Over has raked a pretty high score. Game Over is a multilingual psychological thriller which has surely pushed the boundaries of its genre by offering hitherto unexplored high concept themes executed with noteworthy craftsmanship.

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Swapna, played by Taapsee Pannu, is a video game programmer who has recently suffered a dreadful trauma and is struggling with post-traumatic stress. She remains house bound with her live-in house help Kalamma, who is more of a mother to her. Swapna suddenly starts experiencing grave symptoms of post-traumatic stress and the story of Game Over explores why. But that’s just the first half! The movie is almost clearly split into halves. The first half sets up the background for the horror, which has been cranked up a few notches higher, that is going to ensue in the second half. The second half of the movie plays out as an answer to the question it already asks the audience – What if life were a video game?

Game Over as movie is entertaining every step of the way and excels as a great piece of storytelling in many areas. It introduces some genuinely fascinating concepts like memorial tattoos, anniversary reactions and virtual reality aids in psychotherapy. Moreover, for a high concept psychological thriller, Game Over is definitely easy to follow. The newness of it all is commendable. That said, at some level the movie isn’t able to satisfy the thirst of a cerebral cinephile. At the end of the movie when you sit to figure out what actually happened, you are left with a few links but none which add depth to the story.

The movie plays with various storylines like that of a serial killer with a ghastly fetish, a ghost which could have possessed the body of the protagonist and strange manifestations of post-traumatic stress; but none of them are drawn out well enough to be able to adequately theorize what happened in the second half of the movie. The movie also embraces an extreme level of torture without sufficient reason which leaves behind quite an unsavory taste.

Taapsee Pannu has found her footing in the Indian film industry and is choosing scripts which play to her strength of performance. As expected, she shines as Swapna, showcasing a deep sense of psychological and emotional struggle. Vinodhini Vaidyanathan, an acclaimed tamizh artist, gives a striking performance as Kalamma who provides all the care and warmth the protagonist and the movie require. The movie has been tightly edited and has a very compelling background score which is essential in driving the narrative.

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Overall, the end product transcends any sort of regional flavor and appears globally accessible. Creating this movie as a multilingual to cash in more audience was undoubtedly a smart move. Game Over qualifies as good cinema and is worth your while. It is always heartwarming to see good content being put out by the Indian film industry which can firmly hold its own.

Rating – 3/5 | Grade – B