Kuku and Low Gravity Productions’ I.I.Z.: Indian Institute Of Zombies (A) is the story of how students at an elite engineering campus survive a sudden zombie outbreak.
At the Indian Institute of Innovation, Dr. Darwinder (Mohan Kapur) provides a potion to the elite engineering masterminds and asks them to drink it, promising that it would give them super-powers and immortality. The geniuses readily drink it. But they instantly turn into zombies and start feeding on human flesh. The unafflicted have to save themselves from the zombies and have also to make sure that the evil designs of Dr. Darwinder are not realised.
Kunj Sanghvi’s story is good in parts but lacks consistency and runs out of steam quite early on. The screenplay, written by Hussain Dalal, Abbas Dalal, Siddharth Kumar and Husain Hardawala, is weak and repetitive. After a point of time, the drama keeps going in circles. Even otherwise, the drama looks immature and fails to thrill or terrify. The proceedings give the impression that the screenplay has been written by people who don’t understand the craft of cinema. For instance, all the engineers drink the potion without even bothering to check whether it would have side-effects while granting them immortality and making them super-humans. The foursome’s dialogues are ordinary.
Mohan Kapur is alright as Dr. Darwinder. Anupriya Goenka is quite good as Prof. Braganza. Bidisha Ghosh Sharma does a fair job as M. Mayalalitha. Sachin Kavetham (as Rambo) is earnest. Tanishq Chaudhary is sincere as Haggu. Shiva Brijrani is okay as Virat Sharma. Jesse Lever acts reasonably well in the role of Bhim Bhayankar. Rose Sardana is alright as Kiran. Archika Arora is so-so as Naina. Jude Taxeria (as Robert Vader), Shiwani Paliwal (as Pooja Raichand), Subhash Ahirwar (as Bharatesh a.k.a. Brutus), Ranjan Raj (as Kitaab Shivdasani), Shantanu Anam (as police inspector Reddy), Ram Diwakar (as Raghu Laundrywala), Ishan Sharma (as Phirkilal Phogat), Shashine Verma (as assistant dean Ravi), Shivam Gupta (as Chiku), Kuldeep Singh Thakur, Anshul Dogra, Sanchit Sharma (all three as students), Nitin Dhongade (as constable Jadhav), Chandrakant Vinayak Jadhav (as constable), Vishal (as the zombie actor), Kritasnam Yadav (as the Golden Hall boy), Mansi (as the zombie girl) and the rest lend weak support.
Gaganjeet Singh and Alok Dwivedi’s direction is poor. Shine Jose’s music is functional and so are Shellee’s lyrics. Adil Shaikh’s choreography is average. Shine Jose’s background music needed to be far better. B.S. Madhukar’s cinematography is alright. Sunny Sinha’s production designing is below the mark. Abhijit Deshpande’s editing is loose.
On the whole, I.I.Z.: Indian Institute Of Zombies is a poor show all the way. It is too random to make any impact at the box-office. Absence of face value will only add to its tale of woes.
Released on 15-5-’26 at Gem (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Cinepolis India. Publicity & opening: weak. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.
