Director: Chezhiyan
Cast: Santhosh Sreeram, Sheela Rajkumar
‘To Let’ marks the directorial debut of seasoned industry cinematographer Chezhiyan. Though the film was completed a couple of years back, it was being screened at various Film Festivals around the world before its full commercial theatrical release last week. The film had also won the prestigious National Award for ‘Best Feature Film in Tamil’ in 2017 and this set expectations sky high among popular audience as well.
‘To Let’ is set in the early years of this millennium in Chennai, at a time when IT was booming and when affordable housing was a challenge as rentals were driven sky high. Worst hit were the so called ‘Non IT’ class and the film’s protagonist Illango (Santhosh Sreeram) is a torch bearer for the difficulties faced by them. Illango is a screen writer with ambitions to make it big in the film industry. He lives in a minimalistic, one bedroom residence with his wife Amudha (Sheela Rajkumar) and son, kindergartener Siddharth. With the reasonable rent however, come unreasonable problems- an often-choked toilet, an arrogant land lady and the looming threat of eviction. Their worst fears are realized eventually and they are given a tight deadline to evict. A frantic house hunt starts and it is grueling with no end in sight. Nobody seems to be ready to rent a house to someone who does not have a steady pay check and more stereo-typically, someone ‘from the film industry’. As one character hilariously quips, people are ready to let their lands be ruled by some one from the film industry but not ready to rent them a house! The clock ticks down and under immense turmoil and pressure, Illango gives in to a potential solution. This involves trading morals for peace but the lines are blurred anyway when survival is under threat. There does finally seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel and Illango only wishes that it is not from an incoming train!
The circumstantial settings in To Let are highly authentic and honest. The trauma that the family goes through is very believable and your heart goes out to them. The aesthetics are just brilliant- the cinematography is top notch, the lighting is surreal, the sound design is exemplary and the dialogues are crisp. The actors (who have little prior on-screen experience) have put in a terrific shift and Dharun, who plays the toddler Siddharth steals the show. There is a scene where Siddharth re-enacts their house hunting trips to his parents and it is delightfully winsome and rip-roaring! The film however suffers a bit due to a very conservative story telling approach. You just wait for some creativity and drama to be unleashed at some point and surprise you. This spark is missing unfortunately, especially in the second and third acts. The supporting characters could have been written with more depth and screen time too and the screenplay gets monotonous at times due to this (or the lack of).
Ultimately, ‘To Let’ is a good attempt for a directorial debut that could have been even better with a more adventurous script. It talks about a very real problem and presents it convincingly. This film doesn’t bring the house down but is no pushover either!
Overall rating: 3/5
