Pizza 2 Villa Review

Behind the Movie Villa: The commercially successful and critically acclaimed first installment of ‘Pizza’ introduced audience to new surprises. Taking inspiration from the first part, here is director Deepan with second in franchise. Let us see, how spooky is this?

In the Movie Villa: Story of the film is about a struggling writer Jebin (Ashok Selvan) whose dream to publish his book might remain only as a dream. After the loss of his father (Naazar), with the help of advocate Jebin gets to know about the ancestral property of Villa left behind by his father far away in Bheemili. As Jebin decides to sell out the Villa to secure money for publishing his first novel on self, the selfish girl friend Aarthi (Sanchita Padukone) insists Jebin to spend their married life in Villa. Accordingly, Jebin and Aarthi move into the Villa only to experience some strange happenings. When Jebin plans of penning the second novel, they find some illustrious paintings in the Villa depicting to real life happenings. What are the hidden secrets behind these paintings? What kind of paranormal activities the couple experienced in Villa, when they thought of keeping it in market for sale? Did Jebin fulfill his dream? Why did Naazar keep this Villa away from the notice o Jebin? All these form the part of interesting and gripping climax which unfurls many suspicious questions. 

Values & Out of the Movie Villa: On a comparative basis, ‘Villa’ is not at all a fitting sequel to ‘Pizza’ because the backdrop and behavior of characters are different. While the genre can be treated as almost similar, the kind of thrills and frills experienced in first part are missing in this second. Story and screenplay by Deepan has well balanced the paranormal activities in Villa with some sort of scientific justifications. So, this movie also tried to educate audience in addition with maintaining suspense factor. All the tedious exercise and buildup of argumentation performed by Deepan gets a salvation with last 20 minutes of second half which is in fact the lifeline for ‘Villa.’ More than direction, it’s the talent in Deepan to use other departments flawlessly has rolled out a neat and technically superior film. Especially the typical sounds generated by music director Santosh Narayan added with Deepak’s superlative camera angles and crunchy editing of Leo John Paul have overblown the final output (although few minutes of first half can be safely trimmed off). Mayan’s art work is highly professional and the production values of Good Cinema Group in association with Studio South are tangible.

Performance wise, Ashok Selvan is restricted to few trademark expressions and stood no match to Vijay Sethupathi in first part. Same applies to Sanchita Padukone’s irking role while Remya Nambeesan breathed freshness in first part. Naazar was apt and SJ Suryah too got a cameo here. More than these artists, it’s the work of technicians which speak the essence of ‘Villa.’ Overall, this ‘Villa’ may not offer a complete spooky experience if you get in with lot of expectations. There is just an extended suspense ingredient which instrumentally made audience to remain alert with attention. Without the last 20 to 25 minutes, this film would have been innocuous. Thanks to the short run time of less than 110 minutes. That is ‘Villa’ is crisp and looks gripping in times. 

Coming to the tastes of Telugu audience, fundamentally we demand more of spine chillingly horror and thrilling components or else lot of twists and turns when we speak about this particular genre of films. Strictly, ‘Villa’ does not fit tight into the legacy established by ‘Pizza.’ Yet, it’s the combined team effort of Deepan and his efficient technical team makes ‘Villa’ worth a one time watch, if you have time to spend. If you are a vivid horror movie-goer who watched the recent blockbusters in Hollywood like ‘The Conjuring’ or ‘Insidious Chapter 2,’ then this nothing for you.

Cinejosh Verdict of Pizza 2 Villa: Not As Tasty As First Pizza

                                                     Cinejosh Rating: 2.75/5

                                                                                              Reviewed by Srivaas