Game Over review: Taapsee Pannu starrer, a must watchable fast-paced thriller

Director: Ashwin Saravanan
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Vinodhini Vaidyanathan, Anish Kuruvilla, Sanchana Natarajan, Ramya Subramanian, Parvathi T
Rating: 2.5

Ashwin Saravanan’s, Game Over, is actually a Telugu film dubbed in Hindi. It is one of those films that gets you on the edge of the seat almost immediately as it starts.

Ashwin Saravanan's Game Over, a Tamil-Telugu bilingual film dubbed in Hindi, is a compact, fast-paced thriller. The action occurs in the main in a sprawling, sparsely-occupied dead-end Gurugram bungalow. We have seen that kind of a play on the after-effects of isolation and loneliness before. A woman with the mental and emotional scars of a traumatic incident. The film plays on the theme of violence against women and uses beheadings, bloodshed, fire, the fear of darkness, and a macabre obsession with departed dear ones, all of which impinge on Swapna's life as she fights to get it back on the rails again. A card sows hope in her heart - it says that everyone has two lives, the second one begins when you realize that there is only one. She decides to fight the monster blocking her way.
The screenplay, smart and minimalist, let the camera and the two actresses who are in front of it (Pannu and Vinodhini) do their thing without any manipulation. It is the background score (Ron Ethan Yohann) that is a touch excessive.
Game Over, which is presented by Anurag Kashyap, is not without its share of failings, but director Saravanan is clearly endowed with an exceptional sense of the potential of the cinematic medium to probe complex aspects of humanity. Taapsee Pannu, as she has been in her recent outings, is never less than convincing. While she may be the primary reason why you must go out to watch this film.