Review : Penguin – An inconsistent Suspense thriller !

Starring	Keerthy Suresh, Lingaa, Madhampatty Rangaraj, Master Advaith and others
Directed by	Eashvar Karthic
Produced by	Karthik Subbaraj
Music by	Santhosh Narayanan
Release date	19 June 2020
TeluguMirchi Rating	3/5

Right from the film came into promotions, because of Keerthy Suresh,hype was sky high. Keerthy Suresh’s “Penguin”, the Tamil-Telugu thriller, hit the OTT platforms today. The thriller has generated great buzz as it is Keerthy’s first film that skipped theatrical release and opted for direct digital release.

Story:

Rhythm (Keerthy Suresh) is a pregnant lady who is very upset in life because her elder son, Ajay(Master Advaith) has been missing for six long years. The general talk in the town is that Ajay has been kidnapped by a criminal who comes with a Charlie Chaplin mask and kidnaps other kids as well. As time passes by, Rhythm finds a major breakthrough in the case by dealing with the situation alone. Who kidnapped Ajay? What’s their motive? To know the answers, you need to watch the film on the big screen.

Analysis:

“Penguin”, first-time director Eashvar Karthic’s thriller, draws us into the story with intriguing setup. The writer-director begins the movie with the introduction of the kidnapper and the boy getting kidnapped.

The kidnap incident causing emotional distress on the mother and disturbing her marital life is established well. Unlike other similar thrillers, the director also cleverly brings the child back into the storytelling.

It is not about finding the ‘Gone Boy’ but about knowing the kidnapper. He has set up the premise much like a serial-killer thriller movie but the only thing it isn’t about serial killing. It completely focuses on the kidnapper and keeps us intrigued.

 Right from the beginning, helmer Karthic (who also wrote the script) appears to have had just one single-minded motive – to turn his heroine, Suresh, into a superwoman, her pregnancy adding to the halo around her. But this just pushes the movie into a deep gorge, and it hurtles along a path which has nothing real about it. And Suresh’s performance has little to rave about especially after having watched her as actress Savithri in the biopic Mahanati. The other characters are poorly written.  

Performances:–Keerthy Suresh steals the show but the rest of the cast went unnoticed. One should watch only for Keerthy’s performance, as her presence makes sense whenever she appears. The two men in her life — her ex husband Raghu (Linga) and current spouse Gautham (Madhampatty Rangaraj) — are played by actors who sleepwalk through the film with wooden expressions. Eashvar takes some interesting diversions from stereotypical writing by removing the romantic tension out of this triangle and keeping it to the issue at hand. However, the lines sometimes sound awkward, perhaps even more so because the performances fall short.

Technical:- Santhosh Narayanan’s background score is haunting and builds up the creeps, mixing suspense with fear and making us hold our breath at every discovery. The film is set in a hill town and Kharthik Phalani’s camera exploits the desolate landscape to make you feel distinctly uneasy even though the bloodshed and gore are minimal on screen, considering the genre.

Positives :-

Keerthy Suresh

Background Music by Santosh Shivan

First half some intriguing scenes

Negatives:-

Lack of emotional strength

Ineffective Supporting cast

Climax not as per the heaviness that showcased initially

Verdict:

A thriller that loses its way not long after it begins to roll.

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