Pencil could have been a thrilling whodunit but it also wants to be a message movie that rails against private educational institutions, and in trying to be both, it fails to be a satisfying film. And to make matters worse, its premise isn't wholly original as well, for it is inspired from the Korean thriller 4th Period Mystery.

The film begins promisingly with Nithin (Shariq Hassan), the school's student and the son of a film star, being murdered by an unknown assailant. Then, it goes back by a few months and shows us the various characters who have a motive to kill the boy — Shiva (GV Pra... read the rest.