Release Date : August 18, 2023
123telugu.com Rating : 2.5/5
Starring: Ashwin Kakumanu, Pavithrah Marimuthu, Gaurav Narayanan, Abhishek Shankar, Kaali Venkat, Anupama Kumar
Director: Mohan Govind
Producer: C.V. Kumar
Music Directors: Arun Raj
Cinematographer: Prabu Rhagav
Editors: Ignatious Aswin
Related Links : Trailer
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 the movie 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? This forms part of the crux of the film.
Plus Points:
The first half of the film is decent and is neatly packed 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 a compelling 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 exhibited 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. Thankfully the makers didn’t add any unnecessary love songs.
Minus Points:
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.
Technical Aspects:
Technically the film is pretty good. Arun Raj’s impactful background score is nicely complemented by Prabhu Raghav’s cool cinematography. The production values are good, but the editing could have been better, especially in the second half.
Coming to the director, Mohan Govind, he did an okay job with Pizza 3. He has taken a template-based story and tried to sugar coat it by adding a few thrills. It worked well initially, but in the end, the film is just another revenge drama.
Verdict:
On the whole, Pizza 3: The Mummy is a regular revenge drama that has a few thrilling moments. The film’s first half had some interesting scenes, but the routine flashback portions in the latter half kill the excitement created till then. Ashwin Kakumanu, Pavithrah Marimuthu, and others did well, and the background score is good. But as mentioned earlier, the film doesn’t offer anything novel.
123telugu.com Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed by 123telugu Team