Pencil (film)
Pencil is a 2016 Indian Tamil school-based mystery thriller film written and directed by debutant Mani Nagaraj and produced by S. P. Ragavesh.[1] The film is based on South Korean film 4th Period Mystery released in 2009. The film stars G. V. Prakash Kumar and Sri Divya, with the former also composing the film's music. The film was released on 13 May 2016.[2]
| Pencil | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Mani Nagaraj |
| Produced by | S. P. Ragavesh |
| Written by | Mani Nagaraj |
| Starring | G. V. Prakash Kumar Sri Divya Shariq Hassan |
| Music by | G. V. Prakash Kumar |
| Cinematography | Gopi Amarnath |
| Edited by | Anthony |
Production company | Kalsan Movies Pvt Ltd |
| Distributed by | SVS Pictures Kalasangham Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 134 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Plot
Shiva (G. V. Prakash Kumar) is the best student at his school. His rival Nithin (Shariq Hassan), the son of a leading film star and a spoiled brat, takes any and every opportunity to knock him down both verbally and physically, and the two are known enemies amongst the other students.
One day, Nithin burns Shiva's thesis, and when Shiva finds out, he assaults Nithin in front of the whole school until the school management intervenes. Later, Shiva returns to his class to fight Nithin once again, but this time he finds him dead, with his neck stabbed repeatedly with a sharp pencil. Shiva removes the bloody pencil from Nithin's neck just as his classmate and love interest, Maya Srinivasan (Sri Divya) shows up, catching him in a most incriminating position. Fortunately for him, she not only believes his innocence, but also offers to help him to solve the mystery and catch the real killer – a task made particularly urgent by the fact that in 40 minutes, the rest of the class will return and the body will be discovered.
The suspects are many: the school driver with whom Nithin has a fight over an open wall behind the school; a local goon who enters the school through the open wall to meet his girlfriend, only to be driven out by Nithin; the chemistry teacher Sridhar (Thirumurugan), whose romantic relationship with his colleague Nandhini (Suja Varunee) ends after Nithin secretly records an intimate video of the two and blackmails Nandhini with that video to do what he says; and Nithin's ex-girlfriend Indhulekha (Shamily Sukumar), whose 8-year-old friend Divya is accidentally killed by Nithin when she tries to break up with him and is constantly harassed and blackmailed by Nithin not to report to the school management or the police about the murder.
In the end, Maya and Shiva catch the real killer, who is also a staff at the school and father of Divya. It is also shown that Maya and Shiva are united.
Cast
- G. V. Prakash Kumar as Shiva
- Sri Divya as Maya Srinivasan
- Shariq Hassan as Nithin
- Urvashi as Rajeshwari
- T. P. Gajendran as Sudhanthiram
- VTV Ganesh as Anthony Gonsalves
- Abhishek Shankar as Sundarajan
- Thirumurugan as K. Sridhar
- Suja Varunee as Nandini
- Ravi Prakash as School Chairman
- Balaji Venugopal as Arun Kumar
- Arunraja Kamaraj as Selvaraj
- Yashika Aannand as Swimming Instructor
- Shamily Sukumar as Indhulekha
- Mirchi Shah as Napoleon
- Priya Mosh as Sowmya
- Sri Vidhya
Production
In October 2013, it was announced that music composer G. V. Prakash Kumar would make his debut as an actor with Mani Nagaraj's Pencil, a school based thriller film.[3] The team initially approached Samantha and then Priya Anand however both were unable to sign on, due to their busy filming schedule, and subsequently Sri Divya was recruited to portray the lead female role.[4] Shariq, son of actors Riyaz Khan and Uma Riyaz was announced to make his acting debut with a supporting role in the film.[5] Director Mani Nagraj, who was a friend of Riyaz Khan offered the role of Nithin to his son Shariq Hassan, after seeing his photos on Facebook.
Still photographs from the film's initial photo shoot were released to the media in November 2013, earning positive reaction from critics.[6][7]
Soundtrack
G. V. Prakash Kumar composed the soundtrack, which consists of 8 tracks including 4 songs, 3 karaoke tracks and 1 reprise. The album was released on 19 February 2015 in Suryan FM. Sify wrote, "Pencil is not an engaging album on the lines of Darling & is likely to work when viewed along with the visuals".[8]
| Pencil | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 19 February 2015 | |||
| Genre | Film soundtrack | |||
| Length | 39:01 | |||
| Producer | G. V. Prakash Kumar | |||
| G. V. Prakash Kumar chronology | ||||
| ||||
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Yaarai Polum Illa Neeyum" | G. V. Prakash Kumar | 5:20 |
| 2. | "Why Machi Why" | Tippu and V. Srihari | 4:58 |
| 3. | "Kangalilae" | Shreya Ghoshal & Javed Ali | 5:14 |
| 4. | "LED Kannala" | Hariharasudhan & Maalavika Sundar | 4:13 |
| 5. | "Yaarai Polum illa Neeyum Reprise" | EDM Mix | 4:24 |
| 6. | "Kangalilae Karaoke" | — | 5:20 |
| 7. | "Yaarai Polum Illa Neeyum karaoke" | — | 5:22 |
| 8. | "LED Kannala Karaoke" | — | 4:10 |
References
- "Pencil Movie Review Rating Box Office Collections". AllIndiaAlerts.com. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015.
- "Pencil Movie Review". ChennaiVision.com.
- "GV Prakash turns hero for Pencil - Times Of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 7 October 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- "Priya Anand on why she pulled out of GV Prakash starrer Pencil". Behindwoods.com. 19 October 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- "Riyaz Khan's son to play supporting role in Pencil - Tamil Movie News". Indiaglitz.com. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- "GV Prakash, Sri Divya first look in 'Pencil' - Times Of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- "The first look posters of Pencil are out and look extremely refreshing". Behindwoods.com. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- http://www.sify.com/movies/pencil-audio-review-news-tamil-pcuouAbgjhdbd.html