Penguin

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.

Six 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 died. 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.

Production

Development

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's third production venture, was also produced by Kaarthekeyen Santhanam, Sudhan Sundaram and Jayaram under the banner Passion Studios. It 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 or 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."