A few minutes in director Shreejith Babu’s ‘Penkili’, you see a beautiful Sheeba Baby (Anaswara Rajan) jumping from the roof and getting out of the house after putting pressure on the wedding. But, he is unsuccessful. She catches her father and carelessly goes to her house as if nothing happened. This initial scene is enough to tell you that you are for a bizarre ride with pencili.

Penkili is the story of two different persons. On one hand, we have Suku Sujit Kumar (Sajin Gopu), who posts the poem ‘King’ on Facebook. His visit to Coimbatore changed his life, where he had to get a fake mental health certificate to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, Sheeba is a happy girl who wants to study. However, his parents insist on her to marry and pressurize them to do so on every occasion.

One night, as Suku helps to meet her lover with his friend Aneesh, he meets Sheeba. Their unexpected meatups and events that display Suku and Sheeba’s life. The rest of the film is about how both people deal with the event that bring them together and how they navigate through it.

Penkili is directed by Sreejith Babu, and is written by Jethu Madhavan, who gifted two of the two most magnificent cinematic experiences to Cinema – adventure and Awasham. His third project is no different. Within a few minutes, you are included in the bizarre world, which reminds you of the previous outing of the story writer. Jethu Madhavan’s strength lies in removing strange characters, their way of dealing with difficult situations and biological comedy.

Here’s the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb0nfnkpcci

Pencili is cut with a single cloth and is rich in laughter. Thanks to Sozin Gopu’s character depiction, who played the role of prestigious Amban (Sidekik of Fahd Fasil) in Aeshham. The film parallelly shows the lives of Sheeba and Suku and the struggles they have. His meeting is very late in the story, due to which the final work, where the film becomes serious, lacks the desired effect.

Sajin Gopu and his friends are the souls of this film. Their performances continue to you, and laughter put you on the edge of your seats. However, the story means and does not give you enough time to process the situation. For example, Suku gets into a big trouble during his traveling to Coimbatore. And it is easily resolved. Similarly, all conditions leading through Suku and Sheeba are solved in a stunning way, making the screenplay random.

Sajin Gopu, despite his limited filmography, once again proves that he is an extraordinary artist and one to look out for one. Their mono-acting sequence and the way he symbolize Suku’s strangeness, they are delightful to the witness. Anaswara Rajan’s performance is on and closed. He attempted a vigorous comedy, requiring striking body language. When she succeeds in some places, she also suffers in some scenes.

In addition to the magnificent comedy, it is the music of the composer Justin Varghese that increases the pain at a new level. Vision of Shreejith Babu, the supplementary director of the work of cinematographer Arjun Sethu and editor Kiran Das.

Penkili is a film that can be eaten for its clean comedy, but the story does not do much to invest you.