Cast: Keerthy Suresh

Thriller narratives are particularly tricky to convey. They have to be edgy and yet there needs to be a lot of logic to it. It can be quite a brain-teaser to bring to the audience the ultimate storyline for a gripping thriller. It can either be a good blockbuster like Vishnu Vishal’s Raatchasan or an utter failure like Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Psycho. The fine line is to find the right kind of story for the film. Debut director Eashwar Karthic has been brave enough kickstart his career with a film like Penguin.

This film screams Karthik Subbaraj’s name as its got a subtle mix of his film Pizza and various other psychological thrillers from different Hollywood films. The storyline revolves around Rythym (Keerthy Suresh) who is seven montha pregnant with a trauma. Her first child Ajay was kidnapped six years ago. While the Police confirm that the child is dead, Rythym refuses to believe any of it and is in constant search of the child. Despite the doctors advising her to not revisit her past by revisiting the places, she still chooses to not give up. What unfolds as a result is the storyline of the film.

Keerthy Suresh has given her best to the narrative where her performance is not too much and not too less. She must look weak and yet show a strong willpower and she has perfectly understood the outline of her character but we do not see much of a character development. The rest of the cast have done a below-average job in fulfilling their parts. The villain’s character is weak and is not upto the development it received at the very beginning

The biggest let down of the film is the storyline in itself. The narrative is weak and the director seems to be highly confused between a thriller and an emotional drama. By bringing both together, he has only created a big blunder. Thriller is already a very tough genre to nail and blending it with something as sensitive as motherhood is completely nonsensical. The film does have a few advantages beginning with Keerthy’s decent performance, few good twists and a couple of well worked-out emotional scenes. The only good part to take away from the director is the way he has treated this story, he shows potential. However, the logical loopholes are too glaring to miss out on. The story has gripping scenes here and there but that does not seem enough to save this film.

Cinematography could be considered the saving grace of the film and the plush greenery of the hilly location and the picturesque scenary are soothing to the eyes. Santhosh Narayan’s background score adds a tickle to the suspense scenes making the visuals look eerily beautiful.

The film had so much potential yet so little to show with even the title of the film failing to have a proper connection with the storyline.