Game Over Review
Star Cast : Taapsee, Vinothini
Director : Ashwin Saravanan
Director Ashwin Saravanan’s Game Over has a lot of metaphors on the challenges faced by modern women. What is more interesting is that he has tried to convey an inspirational remedy in the retro game backdrop, which is the life line of the film. If you have seen Ashwin’s previous film Maya, ould easily connect to the ghost angle, his treatment of narrating the flashback in black and white and more such things.
Swapna (Taapsee) is a game developer and is also an ardent retro video game lover. She is often glued to the Pac-Man to come out of her personal setbacks including a gruesome incident happened to her on a New Year eve.
Swapna is also suffering from the anniversary effect and nyctophobia. Interestingly, a tattoo helps her to come out of all these troubles. Any questions? Watch the film to know more…
Ashwin has spent the first half of Game Over mostly to set the characterization of Taapsee, her fear for darkness and why she prefers to not come out of her house which is safeguarded surveillance cameras? Taapsee’s only companion in the house is her maid Kala (Vinothini).
Only closer to the intermission, we get to know the reason behind the pain on Taapsee’s hand where she tattooed the joystick. Taapsee shines as the timid girl Swapna who is scared about a lot of things and we only see it as the extension of her character from Pink. Of course, her profession has been changed and the remedy suggested by Ashwin to women folks is to stand up and fight until your last breath. Your enemies are stalkers, the society which is judgemental, and the fear to fight with the outside world.
The ‘game’ angle is quite refreshing here and Ashwin along with his co-writer Kaavya Ramkumar deserve a pat on their shoulders for coming up with such an out of the box concept.
But Game Over has its drawbacks too... the film’s length could have been extended to explain the psychological and paranormal layers so that audiences can understand better.The film had scope to elevate the drama, thrills and the climax could’ve been really grand but here Ashwin prefers to keep it subtle. Had the director played a little more with all these elements just like how he did with his debut film Maya, Game Over would have also been an adventurous ride.
The director has extracted the best from his technicians, Ron Ethan Yohan’s haunting background score and Vasanth’s crystal clear cinematography are the two biggest assets of the film. Overall, Game Over is a laudable attempt by Ashwin and he is definitely one of the promising filmmakers of this generation! On the whole, watch it, for it bravely treads new ground.
