Game Over

About the film

Game Over is a 2019 Indian psychological horror film directed by Ashwin Saravanan. Produced by YNOT Studios and Reliance Entertainment, the film stars Taapsee Pannu as a woman with PTSD who is defending her home from a mysterious intruder. The film was shot simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu. The film was also dubbed in Hindi and was presented by Anurag Kashyap. The dialogues were written by Ashwin Saravanan and Kaavya Ramkumar in Tamil and Venkat Kacharla in Telugu. The music is composed by Ron Ethan Yohann.

Principal photography commenced on 10 October 2018. The film was released on 14 June 2019 to mostly positive reviews.

Plot

The film starts with a serial killer (whose face is hidden) stalking and filming a girl from outside her house. Later at night, he suffocates the girl by wrapping her head in plastic and tying her hands behind her. He then drags her to an abandoned football field, where he beheads her and sets her body on fire.

Later, the film focuses on Swapna, a single young woman and a talented game designer. She has a fear of darkness and suffers post-traumatic stress, moreso known as 'anniversary reaction', a condition which triggers unsettling feelings around the anniversary of a traumatic event. For Swapna, it is the horrific memory of her being raped in a dark room on last New Year's Eve.

Swapna's family has a traditional mindset that decent girls should not have tattoos or go out at night; to which she did not listen, and was later raped. Instead of comforting Swapna afterwards, they kept blaming the tragedy on her and not listening to them. As a result, Swapna left her parents and cut off contact with them. She leads a secluded life with Kalamma, her housemaid who stays with her. Her only solace is her love for gaming.

Production

The film marks the return of actress Taapsee Pannu to Tamil cinema after a hiatus of four years. The first look poster of the film was unveiled on 10 October 2018, which displayed Taapsee sitting in a wheelchair with legs in plaster casts. The shooting of the film commenced on the very next day on 11 October 2018. Pannu went under intense training playing a person who uses a wheelchair. The shooting of the film was wrapped up on 14 December 2018.

Soundtrack

The official film score is composed by Ron Ethan Yohann who had worked with Ashwin Saravanan in Maya and Iravaakaalam. The music rights were secured by the production company's subsidiary music label YNOT Music, with Divo as their digital partner. The official soundtrack album was released by Santhosh Narayanan on 24 August 2019. The album features 28 songs which lasts for 67 minutes.

Marketing and release

The official teaser of the movie was released on 15 May 2019. The trailer of the film was released by Dhanush, Rana Daggubati and Taapsee Pannu in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi on 30 May 2019. The film was released in all three versions on 14 June 2019.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of 15 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10.

Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in praises Pannu and Vaidyanathan for their 'doughty performance' and opines that the writers have delivered a taut and highly watchable thriller. Summing up she says, "[The film] is a taut thriller about demons within and without". Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost gave three and half stars out of five and feels that the film is an inventive, intelligent and terrifying film that doesn't take the viewer lightly. Praising the performance of Taapsee Pannu and direction of Ashwin Saravanan, Anna says, "Game Over is as crisp and to-the-point as a thriller can get." Priyanka Sinha Jha of News18 rates it with three and half stars out of five, stating the film with its paranormal-meets-noir is a good example where Indian concepts are combined with western. She concludes, that the Hindi version of the film is worth a watch for entertainment and its new-age cinematic virtues. Writing for NDTV Saibal Chatterjee terming screenplay "smart and minimalist", praises the director for his deft handling of the execution and Pannu for her characterisation of the role. He concludes the review as, "While she [Pannu] may be the primary reason why you must go out and watch this film, it certainly isn't devoid of other intrinsic merits in terms of substance and execution." He rates it with three stars out of five. Raja Sen writing a mixed review for Hindustan Times rated the f…

Negative reviews such as those by Rajeev Masand writing for News18, praise Pannu for her performance but states that, "barring its leading lady's impressive performance, it's simply hit and miss." He rates the film with two and half stars out of five. Shubhra Gupta writing for The Indian Express gives one and half star out of five and finds "writing flabby" and "key sequences repetitive". She says, "There are a couple of genuinely scary moments, but the rest of it is too stretched: even the 102 minute run time feels too long, with not enough thrills or chills."

Key details