# Penguin (film)

Penguin is a 2020 Indian Tamil-language mystery thriller film written and directed by Eashvar Karthic in his directorial debut. The film was produced by Kaarthekeyen Santhanam, Sudhan Sundaram and Jayaram, under Stone Bench Films, backed by Karthik Subbaraj, and Passion Studios respectively. It stars Keerthy Suresh as a pregnant woman on the journey of solving the mystery of her first child's disappearance.
The project was announced in August 2019. Eashvar Karthic wrote the script within 18 days, and shooting was completed within 36 days between September and November 2019 at Kodaikanal. The film features cinematography by Karthik Palani and editing was done by Anil Krish; the film has music scored by Santhosh Narayanan.
Penguin was released directly through Amazon Prime Video on 19 June 2020, after a theatrical release failed to happen due to the COVID-19 lockdown in India. The film received mixed reviews from critics, praising the performance of Keerthy and the cinematography whereas the inconsistent writing received criticism.

## Plot

A sinister-looking stranger in a Charlie Chaplin mask holds a bloody bag while walking into a lake. Rhythm, a young woman who resides in Kodaikanal, married to her husband Gautham, is seven months pregnant. While at the hospital for a follow-up appointment, Rhythm recalls her past.
6 years earlier, Rhythm was married to another man named Raghu and together, they had a son named Ajay. One day while Rhythm is reading a story about a missing penguin and its mother, Raghu tells Rhythm that her friend Bhavana's father has passed away. Raghu and Rhythm go to Bhavana's house with Ajay. There they run into Rhythm's other friend Abi, and her husband Kathir. Rhythm and Raghu go into the house where they see Bhavana unresponsive, in a dazed state. Rhythm tries to reassure Bhavana, but Bhavana does not respond. Raghu tells Rhythm to give Bhavana her space and the two leave the house. They then realize that Ajay has gone missing and Raghu blames her for Ajay's disappearance. They search everywhere in the house and eventually, Kathir finds Ajay outside the house.
Back to the present, a nurse tells Rhythm that she is next to see the doctor. While waiting, she plays peek a boo with a little girl but when she closes her eyes, the girl is nowhere to be found. She eventually finds out that the girl's mom picked her up. But as she sees a big hoard of insects on the ceiling she has a gory flashback and passes out. During the appointment, it is revealed that Rhythm is deathly scared of bugs and the doctor also tells Rhythm to forget the past and to avoid going to the lake. Despite the doctor's warning, Rhythm goes to the lake and her flashback continues.
One day at the same spot near the lake, Rhythm was waiting to pick Ajay up from school. Ajay's friend Pavi tells Rhythm that all the kids heard a whistling sound from the forest and Ajay went into the forest following it. Pavi also mentions a man in a Charlie Chaplin mask in the forest. Rhythm is immediately worried. She calls the police and the police all go to look in the lake. Rhythm, in her grief, falls into a dazed state. Raghu, Abi, Kathir, and Bhavana all try to console her and the police continue their search but Ajay cannot be found. The police find a bouquet of human intestines with a 'Rest in Peace' card. Upon seeing the bouquet, Rhythm passes out. There were bugs swarming the bouquet and it is revealed that this is the cause of Rhythm's fear of insects. As time passes, Ajay's bloodstained clothes are found in the forest and the police determine that it is very likely that Ajay is dead.
Back in the present, Rhythm is thinking about her happy times with Ajay, she sees an injured man being chased by a stranger in a Charlie Chaplin mask. The man tells her to run and `tells her that he saw the stranger with a missing child. Rhythms manages to escape, but sees the killer murder the man. The killer sees Rhythm but lets her escape. She thinks that the missing child is Ajay and calls her friend who is a police inspector. Her friend mentions that another girl named Anjana has also gone missing and it is likely that the child is not Ajay. Rhythm still goes back to the lake, and on her way there, she sees a child run in front of her car. Upon looking at him, she realizes that the child is Ajay. An ambulance and the police arrive and Ajay is taken to the hospital. DNA tests confirm that the boy is Ajay. A shocked Raghu arrives at the hospital after being informed about Ajay. The doctor informs them that Ajay has been tortured by his kidnapper and has not spoken a word. They are left alone and a flashback regarding their marriage is shown.
After the couple cannot find Ajay, Rhythm becomes depressed and Raghu's toxic behavior causes them to divorce when Raghu blames Ajay's disappearance on Rhythm. They both go their separate ways.
Back in the present day, Raghu apologizes for his behavior and lets Ajay go home with Rhythm. When Ajay goes to Rhythm's house, he is still very quiet and uncomfortable. One night at home, she overhears Ajay singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and sees his drawings of the kidnapper implying that the kidnapper is still following him. One day at a carnival, she sees the kidnapper when meeting up with Raghu, but fails to follow him. She also loses Ajay but Raghu manages to find him. Raghu brings her home as Gautham could not be reached. In the middle of the night, Ajay attempts to stab Rhythm' but stops when she moves. Later the kidnapper breaks into Rhythm's house and communicates with Ajay via sign language. Rhythm tries to stop the kidnapper but he overpowers her and escapes.
Ajay's doctor, David, suggests that Rhythm take Ajay to a speech therapist. On the way to the therapist, Rhythm's dog Cyrus finds human remains in a dumpster. Cyrus leads Rhythm to a house that belongs to David. Suspecting David, Rhythm finds a way to make him leave the house and searches it. She discovers a secret room where she finds Anjana. Rhythm saves Anjana and Ajay from David and gets David arrested. When Rhythm questions David, it is revealed that he kills kids for their organs. David also reveals that if he had kidnapped Ajay, Ajay would have been dead. It is revealed that David sent the bouquet to divert the police from his crimes. David also says that the kidnapper is around Rhythm and that she has to look at things from a different point of view to figure out who the kidnapper is. She starts to suspect Raghu because Ajay listened to him. She reaches the hospital where she sees that Gautham has been attacked. Gautham holds a glove and reveals that the kidnapper is female and says that she took Ajay. Rhythm runs through the clues in her head and figures out who the kidnapper is but she does not know why they kidnapped Ajay. She gets in the car and drives to a house. The kidnapper shows up and pulls off her mask revealing that she is Bhavana. Rhythm asks where Ajay is and Bhavana says that she will tell Rhythm if she has a drink which Rhythm does. Bhavana says that when her world was shattered and she tried to fix it, she would see Rhythm in every shard. Then, Bhavana's past is revealed through a brief flashback.
When Bhavana and Rhythm were little, everyone put Rhythm in the spotlight and Bhavana was left behind. As they got older, this behavior continued. When Rhythm was engaged, Bhavana's parents organized Rhythm's marriage because she was an orphan, forgetting that they had a daughter who was not engaged at home. And as everyone compared Bhavana to Rhythm, Bhavana started to lose her identity. So she created one of her own. When she saw how worried Rhythm was after Ajay went missing for five minutes, Bhavana decided to kidnap Ajay for one day and return him. But when she saw how upset Rhythm was, she kept Ajay locked up for one day, then a week, and just like that 6 years passed. But one day, Abi's husband Kathir follows Bhavana to an underground room where Ajay's clothes were found, and sees Bhavana slapping Ajay. Bhavana stabs Kathir and forces Ajay to stab Kathir. Kathir tells Ajay to run, and Ajay does so while Bhavana kills Kathir. Ajay runs until he runs in front of Rhythm's car, bringing the film back to the present.
Bhavana says that Rhythm has a choice between saving her unborn child or Ajay. It is revealed that the drink was poisoned and that Ajay was given the same drink. Bhavana says that no matter what, she will have to make a comparison and that someone will die anyways, hoping that Rhythm will finally understand how Bhavana felt all those years. Bhavana shoots herself in the head. Rhythm runs outside, finds the underground room with Cyrus' help, and frees Ajay. In the room, she also finds Kathir's decomposing body. She and Ajay try to escape but the poison starts to affect Rhythm. Ajay speaks for the first time and calls her mom. He then runs outside and finds help.
Rhythm is hospitalized, and since she only had a small dose of poison, both she and the baby are safe. Ajay returns to his normal playful self.

## Cast

* Keerthy Suresh as Rhythm aka Ritu
** Riya Manoj as Young Rhythm
* Linga as Raghu
* Madhampatty Rangaraj as Gautham Siddharth
* Advaith Vinod as Ajay
** Umar as young Ajay
* Mathi as Dr. David
* Muthazhagan as Charlie Chaplin
* Nithya Kriupa as Bhavana
** Sai Jivitha as young Bhavana
** Shakthi as teenage Bhavana
* Harini Rameshkrishnan as Abhi
* Thejank as Kathir
* Maddy as Cyrus
* Murali as Bhavana's father
* Aishwarya Ramani as Anjana
* Uma Shankar as Bhavana's mother
* Tharini Suresh as Anjana's mother

## Production
### Development

   "I was glued by the narration of Eashvar. I'm not only playing a mother in the film, but she is also pregnant so the role was even more challenging. Though Mahanati was a proper female-centric film, it wasn't a direct Tamil film so when I was looking for the right project in Tamil, Eashvar came up with this script and I completely loved it. Only during interviews, I realised that playing a pregnant woman is a big deal".
In August 2019, it was announced that Keerthy Suresh had signed on an untitled "mystery thriller" film to be produced by Karthik Subbaraj under his banner Stone Bench Films, and directed by debutant Eashvar Karthic. The film, which was Stone Bench Films' third production venture, was also produced by Kaarthekeyen Santhanam, Sudhan Sundaram and Jayaram under the banner Passion Studios. It was also marked as Keerthy's second female-centric film, after her performance in Mahanati (2018), which received critical acclaim. Eashvar wrote the script of the film within a span of 18 days. The film was launched as a Tamil and Telugu bilingual; however, the Telugu version was dropped in favor of a dubbed release.
The film's technical crew members included Santhosh Narayanan as the film's composer, Karthik Palani was chosen to handle the cinematography, whereas Anil Krish took in charge of editing the film. Karthik Palani assisted Tirru, before making his debut as the cinematographer in the film, he stated the preparation work took around three months, further adding that the fairly limited time allotted for shooting, did help in a cause, despite the unpredictable weather. He also experimented with camera angles which he stated that no recent Tamil film has had as many wide shots.
On 17 October 2019, the makers unveiled the first look of the film, revealing the title as Penguin. The first look features Keerthy playing a pregnant woman in the film. Keerthy, in an interview with Scroll.in, described the film as "an emotional thriller, which is mostly about motherhood and the bond between mother and son. It's about the trauma she experiences when she loses her son. The whole story is set over four days, during which she tries to find her son." Apart from Keerthy, the film features Linga and Madhampatty Rangaraj in pivotal roles in addition to several newcomers.

### Filming

Principal photography began on 12 September 2019 at Kodaikanal. Keerthy had experienced about the film's shooting in cold destinations such as Kodaikkanal, and also about the challenges faced during early starts and long days. During the shooting in Kodaikanal, the shooting lights fell on a beehive and disturbed the bees, which stung many crew members including Keerthy, and it was after treatment that Keerthy and the team resumed shooting. Principal photography wrapped on 3 November 2019.

## Soundtrack

Penguin's original soundtrack album features only one song composed by Santhosh Narayanan. Titled "Kolame", it was composed by Santhosh at his Future Tense Recording Studio located in Chennai, and he composed the songs and background score of the film, during the period of the COVID-19 lockdown in India, after when the Tamil Nadu government granted permission for post-production works of the film. According to a source report, it stated that Penguin’s music album is one of the first albums to have been completely created during this ongoing period.
"Kolame" was released as a single on 16 June 2020, by composer Anirudh Ravichander, who also released its Telugu version "Praname", and Malayalam version "Omale", simultaneously on the same day. Susha lent the vocals for the song in both the versions, which had lyrics written by Vivek for the Tamil and Malayalam version, while Vennelekanti wrote its Telugu version.
The soundtrack album features seven instrumental tracks, along with the song "Kolame" which was released by Sony Music South, on 10 August 2020. The album also features an additional track "Thaai" (only for the Tamil version), which had lyrics written by Vivek and sung by Anand Aravindakshan. It was not included in the soundtrack album, as well as in the film, but released separately on 2 September 2020.

## Release

Penguin was originally scheduled for a theatrical release. However, on 15 May 2020, the streaming service Amazon Prime Video announced that the film would be made available directly on the service from 19 June 2020, as a result of theatres being closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown. It became the second Tamil film to have a direct-to-streaming release during the lockdown, after Ponmagal Vandhal which released that year. The film was released simultaneously in Tamil with dubbed versions in Telugu and Malayalam.

## Reception

Penguin received mixed reviews from critics. S. Srivatsan of The Hindu wrote, "Penguin is not a bad film but Eashvar's idea of writing suspense gets clumsier as the story progresses, the film is inconsistent for the most part, despite some brilliantly-imagined sequences." Shubra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars stating "Keerthy Suresh tries to make the best of a bad job, and is quite a sight when squaring up to monsters, but the proceedings let her down." M. Suganth of The Times of India gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "Eashvar Karthic provides us the answers in this emotional thriller that might be underwhelming compared to recent serial killer thrillers, but isn't a total letdown, especially for a first film. Part of its success is due to the convincing performance of Keerthy Suresh, which brings out the vulnerability and the strength in this character."
Gauthaman Bhaskaran of the News18 gave 1.5 out of 5 stating "A thriller that loses its way not long after it begins to roll." Nandini Ramanath of Scroll.in stated that "Eashvar Karthic's 132-minute film stumbles along on the strength of its visuals and Keerthy Suresh's suitably fraught performance." Karthik Keramalu from The Quint gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and stated "Keerthy Suresh gave a good performance but the thriller itself was lazy". Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion stated "Even the title has no motivation, unless you consider that the penguin is a bird that cannot fly. This is a film that never takes off."
In a positive note, Ranjani Krishnakumar of Firstpost gave 3 out of 5 stating "Penguin draws a clear line – this is a story about a mother. Rhythm is only that. For her, and for the film, that is enough." Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute gave 3.5 out of 5 stating "Penguin has its moments and Keerthy Suresh indeed makes the film very watchable. But it is probably time to ask if this pressure to include 'twists' isn't killing a good story only because it seems too simple." Haricharan Pudipeddi of Hindustan Times stated "Keerthy Suresh proves yet again she's an artist with a lot of potential. If not for her commendable performance, the film would’ve struggled to make an impact with its convoluted writing. She owns the film from the first frame to the last, and she delivers one of her career-best performances."