Movie: Pencil
Direction: Mani Nagaraj
Cast: G V Prakash Kumar, Sri Divya
Music: G V Prakash Kumar
Cinematographer: Gopi Amarnath
Editor: Anthony
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Rating: ∗∗∗
What is it about: This film is supposedly a remake of the much acclaimed Korean film “4th Period Mystery”. The film is about a murder which happens during a recess between the periods at a reputed school. The suspects leading to the murder and mystery behind the motive forms the crux of the story directed by debutante Mani Nagraj.
Why it’s disappointing: One may point out many, but I wouldn’t because in recent times, there weren’t movies which kept you entertaining most of the time. The film’s dubbing was quite out of sync, which could have been better as the artists were mostly seasoned ones from the industry. Apart from that it had pretty decent outline to keep the audiences entertained.
What to watch out for: I’m not sure how far this had done justice to the original, but to me it was quite good enough and the audience in the cinema hall could agree to that. The film had a neat execution which does not deflect from the subject. Mani Nagraj made sure to have this sorted well, so that his debut doesn’t get lost in the crowd.
The performance by GV Prakash was better than before, or would say suited the best for one main reason he looked perfectly like a school student. And that attire was tailor made for him. That was followed by Sri Divya who was on shoulder to shoulder with GV Prakash Kumar.
The debutante Shariq Hassan was a good find by the makers. Son of actor Riyaz and Uma, had it in his genes and gave a commendable performance. His character was quite a convincing one, as you start to hate it in real.
VTV Ganesh, Urvashi and TP Gajendran put up a great show in terms of comedy. A surprise element was a small role by the singer/lyricist and an actor Arunraj Kamaraj, whose look was great and pretty much announced that he’s interested in negative roles.
The cinematography was great by Gopi Amarnath, which was well backed by Anthony’s editing. The music was quite average by GV Prakash Kumar.
Verdict: Mani Nagaraj, did a fine job in keeping the audience in knots with guessing the killer. Which in fact resulted in a decent thriller, which took care of the clichéd elements required for the genre with a good dash of comedy.
