Game Over is a 2019 Indian psychological thriller film directed by Ashwin Saravanan. Produced by YNOT Studios and Reliance Entertainment, the film stars Taapsee Pannu as a wheelchair-bound woman 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, and received generally positive reviews from critics, garnering praise for Taapsee's performance and Ashwin's direction.
Synopsis
Game Over starts with a stranger stalking a girl with cancer from outside her house and later at midnight killing her by wrapping her head in plastic and tying her hands behind her. After that he takes her to an abandoned field where he beheads her and sets her body on fire. Later, the film focuses on Swapna who is a single young woman and also a talented game designer. She has a fear of the dark, and also suffers from post-traumatic stress more so 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 rape that took place on a New Year's Eve. Because of this, she leads a secluded life with Kalamma, a housemaid who stays with her. Her only solace is her love for gaming. Swapna's life changes upside down the moment she faces trouble with the year old tattoo on her hand. She finds that her tattoo has a stranger girl's ash mixed in the ink. She begins to have some bizarre dreams and finds that the girl Amrutha, a cancer survivor, was an unfortunate victim of a serial killer. Swapna soon finds herself the target of the same serial killer, and it is like a video game she enjoys playing. She is supernaturally given three lives / chances to fight, but her weak mental and physical state get in her way the first two times, allowing her killer to win the supposed game like scenario. She manages to make an elaborate plan the final time and defeats her killers and survives the terrible ordeal and emerges a winner in the bizarre and twisted real life game.
The film marks the return of actress Taapsee to Kollywood 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 confined to a wheel chair. 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 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.
Home media
The Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions of the film became available as VOD on Netflix in late 2019.
Reception
Critical response
, the film holds a 58% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on twelve reviews with an average rating of 6.6/10. 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, " 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 NDTVSaibal 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 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 film with two and half stars out of five and finds, 'Pannu strong in a hysterically distraught role' and Vinodhini Vaidyanathan 'wonderfully warm'. He thinks that the film, inspired from Black Mirror has a solid concept. But, he says, " devolves into a witless muddle in the final act." Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote "In short, Game Over is a tight genre-hopping thriller that keeps you guessing about the genre it can be slotted into...The small miracle of the film is that it manages to pack all of this—and a lot more—into 100-something minutes". Negative reviews such as those by Rajeev Masand writing for CNN-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."
Box office
The film collected a total of in first day, in second day and a total of across 3 versions. The Hindi version of the film collected, Tamil version of the film collected and Telugu version of the film collected in four days. Game Over's worldwide theatrical gross was.
