Pa Pa Paba.

With a hat-trick victory, each one bigger than the previous, Thirukumaran Entertainments' C.V.Kumar portrayed the image of recent Tamil cinema's Midas. And by taking the brand of their 2012 sleeper hit Pizza, Pizza-II The Villa, starring Ashok Selvan, Sanchita Shetty, J.Jayakumar, Nassar and several others, opens up to a lot of expectations.

Plagued with debts post his father's demise, aspiring author Jebin, comes across a sudden property of his- A villa. While he and his girlfriend Aarthi look forward to a happy life in the villa, strange and morbid happenings begin to occur after he finds out a series of paintings that depict his future. Whether Jebin escapes from the evil behind those paintings or does he fall prey to fate, forms the rest of the story.

The lead pair, both seen in TE's previous outing Soodhu Kavvum, deliver to requirement, though they still have a long way to go in establishing themselves as fine artistes. Notable performances include Jayakumar and Nassar, who manage to garner attention in their short screen-time. Santhosh Narayanan, who has impressed audiences with his work probably does not strike gold with this album, though the background score enhances the visual experience.

Even with a commendable run-time just over a 100 minutes, the slow screenplay makes it feel like much longer. While the first half unfolds slow and steady, the second picks up speed, crashing into an interesting climax. It seems pointless why the film would use the Pizza franchise as there seems to be no connection, expect for its genre. Deepak Kumar Pathy's attempt to produce interesting angles to amplify the horror coupled with Leo John Paul's taut editing are commendable, but with a storyline muffled by a draggy screenplay, The Villa falls flat trying to garner up the scares.

With debutante Deepak's work, one does wonder whether the film is a horror flick, or a mere "message-movie" that uses the supernatural as a ploy. Nevertheless, The Villa is your average Friday boredom killer, and not exactly on the same level to Pizza.

Aditya Baskaran