Pencil - Just about sharp enough

Bharath Vijayakumar

Plot: A murder mystery set in a campus with the list of suspects on the increase.

Cast

Debutant Shariq makes an impression right away. He oozes confidence with his body language. G.V. Prakash is not quite the hero here. In what was supposed to be his debut vehicle as an actor he has done more than a decent job as the studious teenager. Sri Divya is adequate and the supporting cast too is decent. Abhishek Shankar does emote well in the climax but this entire preachy scene looks out of place in this simple thriller. Mirchi Shah looks like someone who can make jokes work with effortless ease.

Direction:

Despite the fact that you never get any edge of the seat moments the film does keep you adequately engaged.The action starts right away and there is not much time lost for any extras except for the songs maybe. The school set up is very believable despite the leads being known faces who have acted in more mature roles. The director has kept things quite simple. The backstories of the suspects are crisply narrated and they look part of the narrative without sticking out.

As the intention seems to have been to make a light-hearted thriller there is not really much tension. The leads do not behave like teenagers who are caught up in a mess involving a murder. They seem too cool to show any vulnerability.

The comedy sort of works but it is not really laugh out loud stuff. Do we really need songs in these films unless they are chartbusters?

Bottomline:

Pencil turns out to be an okayish thriller that delivers the goods within its limitations.

Rating: 2.5/5