Pancharaaksharam

Pancharaaksharam
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Balaji Vairamuthu
Written by	Balaji Vairamuthu
Produced by	Vairamuthu
Starring	Santhosh Prathap Madhu Shalini Sana Althaf Gokul Anand Ashwin Jerome
Cinematography	Yuva
Edited by	Anand Geraldin
Music by	K. S. Sundaramurthy
Production company	Paradox Productions
Release date	27 December 2019 (2019-12-27)
Running time	122 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Pancharaaksharam (transl. Five Letters), also known as Pancharaksharam is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language supernatural thriller film written and directed by Balaji Vairamuthu in his directorial debut. The film stars Santhosh Prathap, Madhu Shalini and Sana Althaf in the main lead roles while Gokul Anand and Ashwin Jerome play supportive roles. The film is produced by Vairamuthu under the production banner Paradox Productions. The film is branded as India's first psychological supernatural adventure thriller film.

Plot

Pancharaaksharam opens with an animated prelude, set in the 11th century Chola period. A saint eho is well versed in many languages write a book called Pancharaaksharam. The book is a combination of many books from different languages. The saint gave the book to a passerby. The book goes to a king. The king reads the book everday. The last time the king read the book, it said that the king will be killed in a war .The king dies in a war.The book is said to be an accursed book that was written to predict the reader’s future, but had to be kept hidden for all that came of it was doom. The story moves to present day. Sameera (Madhu Shalini ) loses her job as a editor in a famous newspaper, she a flyer about a concert. Sameera plans to write a book. Dushyanth (Santhosh Prathap) is a traveller. He comes to a concert. Jeevika (Sana Althaf) is good doer organizes a charity concert performed by Aidhan (Gokul Anand). After the concert, Dushyanth and Sameera meets Jeevika and Aidhan , Dharma (Ashwin Jerome) joins them. They becomes friends immediately and goes on a trip together. On their trip, Sameera suggests to play a game. That five friends unfortunately pick to play a game.Reading a book and thinking that what they read will become true to them is the game.For Dushyanth , who calls himself a traveller, it spells harm from a Satanic child making him not to travel again. For Sameera an aspiring writer,it said that a black cat will follow her and it also predicts escape from a grievous situation – but only temporarily. Aidhan, a musician, reads a passage that a chief who made the king glories will due from a rare disease making the king to be the king and chief and his life (Aidhan) will be in danger from the very art that he loves. The do-gooder Jeevika will come face to face with mankind’s darkest depravity. As for Dharma , who loves the thrill of speed, he might be in an accident.After hearing this the friends becomes shocked. Next day they return to their homes. A black cat falls near Sameera.She messages to her friend that she saw a black cat in her house in their group. Aidhan's best friend who is his group lead guitarist becomes paralyzed making Aidhan to be the lead singer and guitarist of his band. The five friends meets again Aidhan says that the wotds from the book is coming true. Jeevika agrees with him. Dushyanth suggests that they should not meet or each contact each other for sometime. The others agrees with him. Sameera dreams to see a ghostly black figure near her. She couldn't concerate on her book. Dharma gets a chance to participate in a car race. The race becomes an accident for Dharma.Dharma gets admitted ino the hospital. Aidhan steps on a electric wire and gets hurt due to electric shock. Jeevika receives a phone call of her friend asking her to come to a place far away from their home. On their way, Jeevika spots an injured man on the road. Can the five friends overcome their destinies?

Cast

• Santhosh Prathap as Dushyanth
• Madhu Shalini as Sameera
• Gokul Anand as Aidhan
• Ashwin Jerome as Dharna
• Sana Althaf as Jeevika
• Harini as Harini, Aidhan's Girlfriend
• Seemon Abbas as the Psychotic Serial Killer
• L. Raja as Dharna's father
• Jeeva Ravi as Jeevika's father
• Dhaswanth as the Satanic Child
• Gunasekaran
• Ranjan

Marketing

The official teaser of the film was unveiled on 13 January 2019.

Soundtrack

The music for the film is scored by KS Sundaramurthy. The first single of the film Theerathae which was sung by Sid Sriram was released on 23 December 2018 and received positive reviews from the audience.

• Theerathe - Sid Sriram
• Destiny - Rajan Chellaiah, Cliffy
• Iravukkum - Vijay Yesudas, Arunraja Kamaraj

Release & reception

Panchaksharam was released on 27 Dec 2019 alongside five other films. Santhosh Prathap, lead actor of this film had another release Naan Avalai Sandhitha Pothu on the same day.

Behindwoods wrote "Overall, despite the flaws in writing, Pancharaaksharam emerges as a completely inventive and interesting thriller that excels at world building". Indian Express wrote "If only the blemishes had been ironed out, the screenplay had been tighter, and the film’s focus had been narrower, Pancharaaksharam would have turned out to be a terrific end to a relatively unsurprising year in Tamil cinema." Times of India wrote "Pancharaaksharam is the kind of film that surprises by simply by being an engaging watch. Director Balaji Vairamuthu sets up the story with quick character introductions and gets into the plot."