Sees Kaddi: A pencil's stroke through scribbled lives, sharpened truths, and erased doubts

A pencil's stroke through scribbled lives, sharpened truths, and erased doubts

- A SHARADHAA

ATHAN GANGADHAR'S Sees Kaddi is like a handwritten letter in a digital world—simple on the surface, but full of heart, questions, and quiet rebellion. At once ambitious and personal, deeply local yet strikingly universal. It feels heavy, not because of its length, but because it refuses to entertain without asking you to feel, think, and engage.

Sees Kaddi, which translates as "Pencil" in English, begins with a lighthearted disclaimer: "No animals or birds were harmed... but many pencils were sacrificed." It sounds playful, but it's more than a joke. That pencil becomes the film's soul. A pencil can write, erase, break, and still be sharpened again. In Sees Kaddi, it becomes a symbol of survival, struggle, creativity, and quiet dignity. But does this deep symbolism lift the film or weigh it down?

Let's start with what works—and works deeply. The film frames itself through Vikram (Cithin Appaiah), a troubled writer who imagines himself as King Vikrama. In his mind, he talks to a security guard who becomes a Bethaala-like figure (B.S. Ramamurthy). Their conversations are philosophical and strange—sometimes heavy—but they become the base for a larger story. The question underneath it all: Can stories help us find ourselves? Can writing name those whom history ignores?