We see a lot of incidents in our day-to-day lives about the ill-treatment of women, and all those who have been performing atrocious acts either getting caught, or escaping the clutches of the law or even left untouched by the law. Game over is about chances. What would you do, if you are given ‘chances’ to pull yourself out of a trauma?
“Ipdi pannirkalam apdi pannirkalam nu yosikkalam, aana nadandhadha maatha mudyadhu pa. Na senjadha ennala maatha mudyadhu. Uyire ponaalum paravala nu sanda potrukkalam nu thonudhu ipo.”
~ “It is of no use to regret the inaction during dire moments after it has done its damage. We could now think of every action that we could have possibly done during that moment, but it is impossible to change the past.”
The infusion of our personal uplifting into the survival instincts of life could probably be the most important aspects for survival in the sometimes evident unjust world. It pushes the boundaries of our self-confidence and self-sustenance, also heightens the awareness of our own personal space.
However, it is not only up to the women to gather up all their courage, but an equal or probably a higher responsibility is embodied upon the men who are responsible for their evil actions. Their upbringing, their personal beliefs and faiths, their personal liking and disliking towards the society, all contribute to the person they will turn out to be in this unsupervised world. Though the “immoral” are often punished by the Law, it can never turn the clock back and undo the pain they have inflicted upon the affected people.
“Setha aprom ipdi pannirkalam apdi pannirkalam nu yosichu prayojanam illa, uyire ponaalum paravala sanda podalam Kalaamma.”
~ “It is of no use to regret the inactions after the incident has caused the damage, let us fight with all our hearts, even if it is going to lead us to our deaths.”
The point that this movie makes is that there is always a game called Life ahead of you. Even if your previous games had unfortunately ended in “Game Over”, even if you had scored your personal best with your unrelenting efforts, it is impossible for you to restart the game with a different game plan unless you look beyond your failed attempts. The incredible use of the game “Pac-man” heightens the effect of this thought.
The concept of the movie, brilliantly conceived by the director Ashwin Saravanan and writer Kavya Ramkumar, slowly builds up and diffuses into the screenplay as subtle as possible. The screenplay is a no-nonsense, straight to the point affair. Actually, the movie straightaway starts off with an unknown man beheading and burning of a middle-aged woman in the most horrifying manner, the killer even goes onto score a penalty kick with the severed head, which sets the tone for the movie.
Of course, the first half takes its own time to set the pieces which might look as if the screenplay has incurred a setback during this setup. But when such great movies are created, it is without a doubt that all these unrelated references are going to be the primary soldiers of war at a later point in time. That is what the first half does, it slowly places all the pieces onto the Chess Board in its rightful positions, and once the Game is on, we are in for a full head-on war.
Theories:
If you want to see this movie as more than just a serial killer thriller, this is just the section you would not want to miss. The movie has so many parallels and theories on how the story can be interpreted.
One is the obvious way that is shown in the movie – There is a divine intervention because the ashes of a 3-time Cancer survivor is inside Swapna through the tattoo she wears. It is kind of a supernatural happening that gives Swapna three chances to win over the serial killers that come and try to kill her at her house. If you want to see this movie as just a thriller, here is your answer.
If you are in for a crazy take on the movie, this one’s for you. One of the fan theories suggests that all this is happening inside her head. Since she has been at home all the time working on developing games as part of her work, she fantasizes or may even hallucinated all the events. The war she is going into is probably a game that she visualizes inside her head and probably would want to develop them into a full fledged game later as part of her work.
However, this third theory is more of a logical explanation based on the events of the movie.
The director wanted to show how she fights her anniversary reactions. Just like when you play a game, every level you clear you are with a new, tougher challenge. The challenge is denoted by the multiplying of the villains into three guys during the intermission of the movie. Finally, you try to finish the game with the three chances you have in hand. Probably, all this goes inside her head, but metaphorically speaking the villains are her inner demons that she fights to overcome her internal fears.
Vinodhini Vaidynathan as “Kalaamma” could possibly be one of her best performances till date. Vinodhini was just incredible as Kalaamma, as someone who would always be there for Swapna no matter what the circumstances are. This role is going to standout with an incredible prominence as it reminds us of our very own Kalaamma we had during our childhood days, the person who we would confide everything.
Now, let’s descend into the character on which the movie is centered on – “Swapna” played by the incredible Taapsee Pannu.
Taapsee brings out the pain through Swapna to show how an unfortunate event in the past affects her work, her relationship with her closed ones, her sanity and in turn, her very own Life. Taapsee behaves and functions exactly like a person who would be going through such a trauma in her life. At every point in the movie, Swapna makes us root for her and stand by her, just like how Kalaamma does.
As for the experience of the movie, a special mention to the depiction of how a panic attack occurs. For anyone who hasn’t experienced it, the ones that come in the movie makes us feel lucky that we have not experienced one in real.
The background score in Game Over, gloriously composed by Ron Ethan Yohann, is just in the right amounts all throughout. There is a ticking of a clock that is kept under wraps in the first half and slowly starts to click big time as soon as the “Game is On”. The whole of second half keeps your nerves in check; one would be searching for a hand to hold on to all throughout the second half.
Perhaps one of the most interesting ways to heighten a movie experience is to incorporate a “ticking clock“ as your background score. You’re not using any words or actions, yet you’re cleverly using the tempo of a film’s score to convince your audience subconsciously that time is running out.
We have seen how the “ticking clock” keeps our nerves on check during the Space Docking sequence in the movie Interstellar, or how a ferociously ticking of the Dosimeter in the recent HBO’s series Chernobyl could transfer the very same effect to the viewers.
The events transpired on screen for the last one hour of the movie were just unbelievably intense. The combined efforts of the music by Ron Ethan Yohann, cinematography by A.Vasanth and editing by Richard Kevin gives an extraordinary level of cinematic high that we seldom have witnessed on screen in recent times.
Game Over is one of the best thrillers ever made in Tamil Cinema. With the movie streaming on Netflix, it creates a greater range of audience to witness the sheer killer of a movie this is. If you have not watched the movie yet, you are missing out big time on a very unique film that caught everyone by surprise and shocked. Quickly plan a Movie-Night with your friends or family and catch this movie right away.