User Reviews

Penguin had the potential to become one of the finest thrillers of Tamil cinema. But sometime after the first hour, the director decides to let everything go down the drain. Keerthy Suresh plays the character of a pregnant woman, grieving the loss of her first child and undergoing treatment to heal old scars. When her lost son comes back, a lot of problem follows her. For the first one hour, everything was fine. The screenplay was gripping. The mystery around the serial killer was intriguing. Even though Keerthy Suresh keeps losing her son so many times, the events in the first hour were interesting. And then, everything went downhill. Towards the end, when Keerthy Suresh manages to track down the killer, there is an intense scene where she is in the house of the killer. Unlike a normal human being who would have called the cops, she tries to poke around and manages to get herself caught by the killer. It is like the director decided that everyone from that point should behave like absolute idiots. Even after the killer gets caught, Keerthy Suresh has a conversation with the killer which will remind you of the confrontation between Vikram and Vedha. The entire conversation between the killer and Keerthy Suresh felt like a rip-off of the conversation in The Silence of the Lambs. So at the end of the arduous conversation, Keerthy Suresh realizes who the real killer is and once again goes to the house of the killer without informing the cops about it. Notwithstanding all these stupidities, there was a curiosity to find out the real reason behind the kidnapping of the boy. But when the killer finally reveals that, it felt laughably simple. Why would someone go to such lengths to avenge for something as simple as that? That was the point when I felt let down. The music was amazing. Santhosh Narayanan tries to keep you on the edge and succeeds at that. The cinematography deserves a special mention. There are beautiful scenes of fog covered hills, lakes as still as glass and imposing forests. Over all, Penguin is definitely a disappointment.

I usually don't write reviews. But this movie was one of the most frustrating films I've watched, so I had to write one. Ok, so they've set out to make a stylish slow boiling thriller. They accomplished half. The visuals are pleasing and they set the mood. But the plot? Its wafer thin. So many wasted characters who have nothing to do. Strange angles are presented but never explored. The whole point of the plot, which was of abducting a child, is left unexplored. And there are so many unexplained happenings. Here are some questions that are left lurking- Why doesn't any one in the movie react to any abnormality?? What was that interval scene about? Everyone completely forgot about superhuman qualities post interval and why wasn't the kid taken to a psychologist for PTSD? He assaults a man with a weapon! Which mom will be so careless with a kid especially after finding him after 6 long yrs? half the movie seemed to validate the first husband's accusal. She amost always seemed to lose the kid! And what was that nonsense about sign language and late night rhymes? How did the kid start talking suddenly?

The guy who played Gautham - was he made of wax?? The whole plot was rubbish and the payoff was the silliest. And the dialogues! I'm almost sure some one with an emotional quotient of a sixth grader wrote this! In one scene a friend compares a breakup with a lost child to convince the mom to cheer up. That sums up the movie for me.

I was so so excited for it ever since the trailer dropped. But I'm so sorry, This has no story. None. No justified motivations behind the story. Only 3 stars are for visuals, cinematography is top notch. But it couldn't salvage the rest. The background score is added where it's not necessary, it's only noise/loud at times. Background is more pronounced in first half and quite blank during second half. Screenplay is disaster. Sound effect ( breaths/hmm/sighs) are so loud and added continuously to the point that it tires you, plus these 'breath' sounds are only of main protagonist, rhythm. So, it means that the other characters don't breathe? Whatever is shown is idiotic(organ trade, a single man job? & Only two kids missing? Question gameby Doc?, Why??? , He isn't even a significant character, why waste precious screen time? ) Go watch, waste your time and come back to this review. The most hilarious sequence is climax 'game' - the killer doc asks the question to the main protagonist, rhythm? - "how do you get this courage?" I mean what the hell? Movie attempts to be too many things at the same time.... Psychological? - fail. Thriller? - boring. Mystery? - there is none. You cannot create a killer without justifying his/her existence. There are so many logical falls - 1. How did doc know that the kid responds to commands if he did not kidnap him? 2. How does doc knows all the answers? 3. How can you barge into a hospital, throw things around, kidnap kid and still guards are sleeping. 4. The final reveal is a joke. We all go through the experience of comparison with other children all our lives. We don't turn into killers. 5. Her(KIDNAPPER'S) husband somehow follows her to jungle? (Yea, right). How did she manage such an elaborate setup in jungle? 6. Dog is the go to detective in movie. If he can sniff so many things. Why did he not sniff in the first place when the kid was kidnapped eariler.

This is a mess. Save your time please.