''Pencil'' is a 2016 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

-language

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

written and directed by debutant Mani Nagaraj and produced by S. P. Ragavesh. The film is based on South Korean film ''

4th Period Mystery ''4th Period Mystery'' (), released internationally as ''The Clue'', is a 2009 South Korean thriller film starring Yoo Seung-ho and Kang So-ra. It was released on August 12, 2009, and drew a total of 67,602 admissions. Production Casting Origina ...

''. The film stars

G. V. Prakash Kumar G. V. Prakash Kumar is an Indian composer, actor, producer and singer known for his work in Tamil films and a few Telugu films as well. His first film was S Pictures' ''Veyil'' (2006) and he became popular in Tamil cinema by the early 2010s. He ...

and

Sri Divya Sri Divya (born 1 April 1993) is an Indian actress who works primarily in Tamil and Telugu films. She won Nandi Award for Best Child Actress for ''Bharati'', a Telugu film in 2006. Early life Sri Divya was born in Hyderabad of present-day ...

, with the former also composing the film's music. The film was released on 13 May 2016.

Plot

Shiva (

) 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. Shiva doesn't find much happiness in school other than his classmate and love interest, Maya Srinivasan (

) who later reciprocates his feelings after he saves her from a science lab accident. 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 Maya 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 then 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 Suja Varunee is an Indian actress who has appeared in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam language films. She is the winner of ''BB Jodigal (season 2)''. Career Aged fourteen, Suja was selected to portray the leading role in the coming-of-ag ...

) 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. Maya and Shiva go on a wild goose chase to find out who the real killer is. Indhulekha and Shiva's friend, Napoleon help to find the killer. It then turns out that Divya's father is the killer because he wanted revenge for his daughter's death. Maya and Shiva also seem to be together but a small verbal fight ensues in between the two in the end.

Cast

as Shiva *

as Maya Srinivasan *

Shariq Hassan Khan Shariq Hassan (born 7 December 1994) is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Tamil films and television shows. He played the role of villain in the 2016 film ''Pencil''. Personal life Shariq Hassan was born on 7 December 1994, in Chenn ...

as Nithin *

Urvashi Urvashi ( sa, उर्वशी, Urvaśī}) is the most prominent apsara (celestial nymph) in Hindu mythology, considered to be the most beautiful of all the apsaras, and an expert dancer. She is mentioned in both ''Vedic'' and ''Puranic'' s ...

as Rajeshwari * Giriprasad Damodar as Vicky *

T. P. Gajendran T. P. Gajendran (1955 – 5 February 2023) was an Indian film director and actor who played minor roles. He directed more than 15 films and acted in more than 100 films. He was the son of Tuticorin MR.Perumal. Actress T. P. Muthulakshmi, his s ...

as Sudhanthiram *

VTV Ganesh Ganesh Janardhanan, also known by his stage name VTV Ganesh is an Indian actor, comedian and film producer. He is best known for his hoarse voice, and his appearances in films featuring Silambarasan. He had made his debut in Tamil movie ''Red'' ...

as Anthony Gonsalves *

Abhishek Shankar Abhishek Shankar is an Indian Tamil film and television actor who has worked on films and serials. Career Abhishek made his debut as an actor with Gnana Rajasekaran's critically acclaimed drama film ''Mogamul'' (1995), playing a leading role a ...

as Sundarajaan * Thirumurugan as K. Sridhar *

as Nandini *

Ravi Prakash Ravi Prakash is an Indian actor who primarily appears in Telugu and Tamil films. Career Ravi was born in Vijayawada and grew up in Visakhapatnam, India. After completing his secondary education, he chose to pursue a career in medicine and stu ...

as School Chairman *

Balaji Venugopal Balaji Venugopal is an Indian actor, who has worked in Tamil films. Beginning his career as a radio host, Balaji appeared in films including Poisollaporom, ''Madrasapattinam'' (2010) and ''Nanban'' (2012), before playing a leading role in the ...

as Arun Kumar *

Arunraja Kamaraj Arunraja Kamaraj is a singer, lyricist, actor, director in Tamil-language films. He is known for his works as lyricist in films such as '' Jigarthanda'', '' Theri'', ''Pencil'' and ''Kabali''. He also debuted as an actor in '' Raja Rani'' and a ...

as Selvaraj *

Yashika Aannand Yashika Aanand (born 4 August 1999) is an Indian actress, model and television personality, who works predominantly in Tamil films and television shows. Early life Yashika Aannand was born into a Punjabi Hindu family on 4 August 1999 in New D ...

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

would make his debut as an actor with Mani Nagaraj's ''Pencil'', a school based thriller film. The team initially approached

Samantha Samantha (or the alternatively Samanta) is primarily used as a feminine given name. It was recorded in England in 1633 in Newton Regis, Warwickshire. It was also recorded in the 18th century in New England, but its etymology is uncertain. Specu ...

and then

Priya Anand Priya Anand (born 17 September 1986) is an Indian actress and model who predominantly appears in Tamil films. She has also appeared in Telugu, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam films. After pursuing higher studies in the US, she began a career in ...

however both were unable to sign on, due to their busy filming schedule, and subsequently

was recruited to portray the lead female role. Shariq, son of actors

Riyaz Khan Riyaz Khan is an Indian actor and bodybuilder. He predominantly works in Malayalam and Tamil films and television series, besides acting in a few Telugu and Kannada films, as well as two Hindi films. Riyaz debuted in Malayalam through the 1994 ...

and Uma Riyaz was announced to make his acting debut with a supporting role in the film. Director Mani Nagraj, who was a friend of

offered the role of Nithin to his son Shariq Hassan, after seeing his photos on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. Still photographs from the film's initial photo shoot were released to the media in November 2013, earning positive reaction from critics.

Soundtrack

composed the soundtrack, which consists of 8 tracks including 4 songs, 3 karaoke tracks and 1

reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repea ...

. The album was released on 19 February 2015 in Suryan FM.

Sify Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology company providing end-to-end ICT solutions including telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation in ...

wrote, "''Pencil'' is not an engaging album on the lines of ''Darling'' & is likely to work when viewed along with the visuals".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 5716976 2016 films 2010s Tamil-language films Films scored by G. V. Prakash Kumar Indian remakes of South Korean films 2016 directorial debut films Films shot in Ishikawa Prefecture Films shot in Tokyo