The cynic in me scoffed when Akshay Oberoi, the lead actor of Pizza, peddled his film as an intelligent thriller and not your typical Hindi horror fest that is unintentionally funny.
Fortunately, he didn’t have to eat his words.
Pizza, a tale about a delivery boy who ends up in a haunted house filled with axe-wielding ghosts and a pregnant woman at grotesque-risk, is a smartly-executed suspense film. First-time director Akshay Akkineni builds a thrilling, scary atmosphere in the first half. The credit goes to Oberoi who plays Kunal — a struggling employee who gets unwittingly trapped in a mansion — in an endearing manner. We feel his pain when he frantically dials for help as the doors behind the palatial mansion shut behind him or the fear he feels when he turns to find a small girl tugging his T-shirt. It’s eerie and not for the faint-hearted. And don’t be hard on yourself if your screech is louder than Kunal’s after he runs into strange dead creatures.
It’s not a movie with a comprehension-defying storyline. There’s a sense to all that screeching, as we are told towards the end.
Parvathy Omanakuttan does a fine job as Kunal’s wife, who is a struggling writer of ghost novels. The nice-looking couple have good chemistry and their banter and fights as they go about life is swiftly highlighted in the first half. They are cash-strapped and their problems seem real. And, they don’t break into song in exotic locations (phew!). Arunoday Singh and Dipannita Sharma do a fine job of scaring the living daylights out of you. But their bloodied make-up is a tad too much. But those are tiny blips to an otherwise engaging film.
Also, a delightful topping to Pizza is that they don’t stretch out the fear-inducing scenes like a child playing with chewing gum. The director knew when to put a stop to it and get on with the story. The actors may be relatively new to the industry, but Oberoi and his team emerge victorious.
If you are not squeamish about worm-infested pizzas or bloodied ghosts, you shouldn’t hesitate to take a bite into this one. It’s appropriately nauseating but doesn’t go overboard with gore and relies on tinkling with your head.
