Debutant director Balaji Vairamuthu's fantasy thriller Pancharaaksharam stars Santhosh Prathap, Gokul, Ashwin Jerome, Madhushalini and Sana Althaf in central roles. The film is produced by Vairamuthu under the banner Paradox Productions.

Pancharaaksharam deals with the story of five individuals with contrasting goals and personalities. If Santhosh's character is a person who is deeply into wanderlust, Sana Althaf plays a committed social worker. If Ashwin Jerome plays the role of a carefree youngster, Madhushalini and Gokul's characters have their respective professional goals.

Their paths converge during a concert (a well-conceived setup). In the course of their journey, the five stumble upon the mystical titular book that changes their lives forever. The initial portions of Pancharaaksharam play out in a lighter tone where the characters (with contrasting goals and backdrops) and their interpersonal relationships are introduced. Through the book, the narrative introduces the fate of its characters beforehand, thereby letting us anticipate about, how it unfolds.

The interval block gives a major cliffhanger, where we see the unfortunate events happen. The portion is wonderfully interwoven (Anand Geraldin is the editor). Post interval, the second half is mainly focused on how the book determines the four protagonists' path towards the rescue of their missing friend. From here, the narrative slightly goes off the rails.

For instance, the screenplay does less to solve the loose ends of the first half and the book keeps on piling clues that lead to the climactic act, which becomes quite hard to follow. The presence of implausible backstories reduces the pace of the narrative. However, despite the flaws, the narrative manages to keep you invested as the makers manage to create a race-against-time situation.

Gokul stands out with his spirited performance as the short-tempered musician, while Yuva's cinematography does well to create different moods for the film. K.S. Sundaramurthy's background score compliments the narrative and the song 'Theerathae' really adds depth to a crucial point of the film. Overall, despite the flaws in writing, Pancharaaksharam emerges as a completely inventive and interesting thriller that excels at world building.