The Telugu version of Pizza 3: The Mummy, the third film in the Pizza series, has hit the screens today. Directed by Mohan Govind, the film stars Ashwin Kakumanu and Pavithrah Marimuthu in the lead roles. Let’s see how it is.
Story:
Nalan (Ashwin Kakumanu) owns a restaurant, and he is head over heels for Kayal (Pavithrah Marimuthu). Kayal is an app developer who is trying to create an app that can communicate with spirits. Kayal’s brother Prem (Gaurav Narayanan), a Police officer, doesn’t like Nalan. All of a sudden, a few mysterious things start happening in the restaurant.
A sweet keeps appearing in the kitchen every day, and the restaurant’s staff believe that it is Nalan who prepared the dish. But Nalan, who doesn’t have any clue about the dish, starts seeing an evil spirit in the kitchen. What happened next? Why is the spirit hiding in the kitchen? What exactly does it require, forms crucial crux of the film.
On-screen performance:
The first half of the film is okay and is neatly presented with thrilling scenes and genuine jump scares. Though the film starts on a slow note initially, it picks up the pace with interesting elements. The scenes in which the protagonist and his staff experience the paranormal activity creates excitement.
A few murders take place in the first hour, and they were depicted in an effective manner. The background score was instrumental in enhancing the impact of a few sequences.
Ashwin Kakumanu gave a neat performance in the film. He neatly emotes all different emotions.
The leading lady Pavithrah Marimuthu did a decent job though her screen time is less. Gaurav as a cop, was fine. Kaali Venkat and Abhi Nakshatra were adequate in their respective roles. Thanks the makers, they didn’t add any unnecessary deviations.
Off-screen talents:
While the first hour was decent enough, the second hour failed to hold the attention. The first half works mainly due to the staging of the horror scenes and good background score, but the movie becomes unexciting with the reveal of the backstory of the evil spirit.
Just like many other horror films, here in Pizza 3, too, a family gets killed, and their spirits set out to take revenge for the injustice that happened to them. So right from the scene the backstory commences, we can easily guess what is going to happen over the end.
This is where the makers should have brought in some twists and thrills to make this predictable horror thriller interesting. Also, the flashback portions are a bit stretched. What otherwise could have been a decent horror flick was let down by a routine second half and a bad climax.
Technically the film is pretty good. Arun Raj’s impactful background score is nicely blended by Prabhu Raghav’s cool cinematography. The production values are good, but the editing could have been better.
Coming to the director, Mohan Govind, he did an okay job with Pizza 3. He has taken a template-based story and tried to coat it by adding a few thrills. It worked well initially, but in the end, the film is just another revenge drama.
What’s hot?
A few thrilling moments
Good performances
What’s not?
Routine template narrative
Lack of impactful second half
Verdict:
In an overview, Pizza 3: The Mummy is a routine revenge drama that has a few thrilling moments. The film’s first half had some intriguing scenes, but the same old flashback portions in the latter half kill the excitement created. As mentioned above, the film doesn’t offer anything new to the audience.
Telugubulletin.com Rating: 1.75/5