REVIEW PENGUIN (Tamil)

Producers- Karthikeyan Santhanam, Sudhan Sundaram and Jayaram

Director- Easwar Karthic

Star Cast- Keerthy Suresh, Linga, Master Advaith and Madhampatty Rangaraj

Genre- Thriller

Rating- ***1/2

INTRIGUING EDGY THRILLER!

Jyothi Venkatesh

Basically the premise is about a young pregnant mother Rhythm (Keerthy Suresh) who sets out in search of her first child Ajay (Master Advaith), who has been missing for six years. The film deals with the story of Rhythm, and how her life turns upside down. Her husband Raghu (Linga) leaves her, and a few years later she marries Gautham (Madhampatty Rangaraj) and now Rhythm is pregnant with Gautham's child. A series of strange and eerie incidents take place and how she handles them is what forms the rest of the plot.

Though Keerthy rises to the challenge and delivers a credible performance all through, the supporting cast is rather weak. As a frantic and devastated mother who never gives up on the search for her firstborn though he's written off as good as dead by everyone around her, Keerthy brings considerable gravitas to the role. The two men in her life -- her ex husband Raghu (Linga) and current spouse Gautham (Madhampatty Rangaraj) sleepwalk through the film with wooden expressions.

Mathi, who plays Dr David shows a lot of promise and delivers a very realistic and balanced performance while Master Advaith is simply superb as the child Ajay especially when he communicates with sign language. Nithya Krupa as Bhavana steals the show with her expressions and brings about a strange unexpected twist.

While Santosh Narayanan deserves kudos for handling the background music of the film superbly, Kharthik Palani's cinematography is magnificent and the way he covers the scenery of the Nilgiris predominantly during the nights, are a delight to watch, with the frames breathing so much of life. Unfortunately the film fails to move till the interval and you wonder where it is stuck after the few initial gripping sequences where you see Rhythm grappling with problems in her life.

Though the director keeps you spell bound with his edgy story, the problem with the screenplay is that there are a few loopholes which the writer director has not been able to sketch properly, leaving you disappointed. The dialogues are brilliant especially when Rhythm tells that she is pregnant, and not brain-dead in one scene. Though you are not at all convinced with two different climaxes, the director has handed the scenes deftly  and manages to keep you sitting on the edge of your seat while you set out to watch the movie.

On the flip side, the film does not have any conventional leading man to back up Keerthy. It also does not have any relief or song like in the traditional films that we get to see. Though the film being a thriller does not have any pertinent message, it does convey to the viewer that in today’s society with as many as 17 kids being kidnapped for the sake of their organs, the malaise is taking deeper roots and playing a very vital role.

To sum up, Penguin is a clean endearing film with a slow pace but a lot of intriguing and edgy thrills and if you like to see films which are different by way of theme as well as treatment, I’d advise you to see this movie on Amazon Prime Video where it has been dropped today by passing the traditional theatrical release, like earlier with Ponmagal Vandhaal.