The Horror Films Of India: PIZZA (2012)
India makes outstanding action films (PATHAAN is on Amazon Prime) but its horror & scifi is also cool and may be less known, let's see if we can fix that starting now.
India has been making films since the silent era. There are 40 languages in India and over 4000 gods. We tend to call all films in India Bollywood, but there are several Hollywood’s in India. We don’t really know much about the money involved in this film industry but let me put it this way. Shah Rukh Khan , also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi films and makes more money than Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves. He is more famous than Taylor Swift. This is footage of him with David Letterman going out to wave hello to people gathered outside one of his homes (the interview Letterman did with him is on Netflix):
Music and dance plays a big role in the films, it is important to note that India does not show strongly sexual films. When it’s time for a makeout scene, we often get a dance scene. My favorite belly dancer who captivates me whenever she appears in a Bollywood film is Nora Fatehi. The best belly dancers have complete control of every part of their body. Talk about your body as an instrument! Norah is actually from Canada, many dancers from around the world have found work in India. Take a look at her work, and be amazed:
Over the next few months I will be posting on occasion an action, horror or science fiction film from India and continue to give you information about the film industry in India. I have a Spotify playlist if you would like to hear the songs from many current films:
You will note the playlist begins with 2 songs from PATHAAN which I saw 3 times at my local AMC 21 theater. If you live in a state with AMC theaters, there is usually 1 that shows films from India and other nations. Always check. PATHAAN is currently on Amazon Prime, and the action scenes will blow you away.
That brings me to our first in this series, PIZZA. This is what Wikipedia writes about the movie:
Pizza is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language horror thriller film written and directed by debutant Karthik Subbaraj. The film stars Vijay Sethupathi and Remya Nambeesan in the lead roles, with Aadukalam Naren, Jayakumar, Pooja Ramachandran, and Bobby Simha playing the supporting roles.
The story is about a pizza delivery man named Michael who lands in a mysterious predicament, and how it affects his life. The film, produced by C. V. Kumar under Thirukumaran Entertainment, was released by Sangam Cinemas. Featuring music composed by Santhosh Narayanan and cinematography by Gopi Amarnath, it was the first Tamil film to feature 7.1 surround sound. Pizza was released on 19 October 2012 to critical acclaim and highly positive reviews for its direction, storyline, screenplay, performances, background score, and plot twist. It became a major critical and commercial success, grossing ₹8 crores against a budget of ₹1.5 crores.
The short film director Karthik Subbaraj intended for Jigarthanda to be his feature debut; unable to obtain financing as he was untested in directing big budget films, he instead decided to make the much lower budget Pizza.
N. Venkateswaran from The Times of India gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote that director Karthik Subburaj displayed a "strong control of the medium and gives abundant display of his narrative skills", going to add: "If he maintains the quality of his menu and future offerings, Karthik [...] is sure to become one of Kollywood's top directors". Sify termed the film as "delicious" and described it as "entertaining and at the same time different in its approach". Malini Mannath from The New Indian Express described Pizza as "offbeat, intriguing and gripping, and nothing like what you've seen on Tamil screen before". A reviewer from Behindwoods stated, Karthik Subburaj played "all the cards required to make a quality horror suspense film with a thrilling screenplay, deft camerawork, strong performances, eerie sound effects and music".
IndiaGlitz wrote: "If the success of a thriller lies in bringing the film-goer to the edge of the seat, Pizza does it. With right toppings in the form of a taut screenplay, deft camera work, eerie sound effects and nice background score, the movie manages to leave a mark".
As a result of this no budget film, Karthik became India’s most in demand director and no longer has to use his own money to make movies.
Enjoy PIZZA:
Behind the paywall: A Close-Up Look Into Bollywood | Bollywood: The Worlds Biggest Film Industry
The film industry employs more than a quarter of a million people in India and Anita begins her journey in Mumbai, the home of Bollywood, where the stars tower over the city on enormous murals. This British made documentary is a great starting point to understand the importance of the India film industry.
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