Written & Directed: Ramkumar Balakrishnan
You lead your life thinking that you are doing it all right. You assume that your austere way of living is the way to go to combat against future eventualities. You follow the way you think is the best way to salvation. You secure a safe space for you to do your things. Then, somebody pops in and bursts your bubble. This creates dissonance. All your lifetime understandings of things come crumbling down. Your whole existence is a question mark. How would you respond?
Do you accept that there is more than one way of doing things and get alternatives? Are you justified to stand your ground to nurse your bruised ego? Do you make the other understand your point of view? Or just let it be?
The same thing happened to Ilamparuthi, a near-retirement middle-level government official. A new tenant moved into the duplex he is co-renting. The new tenant is a young IT professional, Eshwar, with his pregnant wife. Things were cordial between the families as Ilamparuthi and his wife and young adult daughter treated them like family. Ilamparuthi notices that the young couple are quite spendthrift with their expenditure. While he tries to save as much as he can for rainy days, the younger generation generally does not save. Problems brewed when Eshwar decided to buy a car. The porch space is a wee bit too tight for Eshwar’s car and Ilamparuthi’s motorbike.
Do you accept that there is more than one way of doing things and get alternatives? Are you justified to stand your ground to nurse your bruised ego? Do you make the other understand your point of view? Or just let it be?
The same thing happened to Ilamparuthi, a near-retirement middle-level government official. A new tenant moved into the duplex he is co-renting. The new tenant is a young IT professional, Eshwar, with his pregnant wife. Things were cordial between the families as Ilamparuthi and his wife and young adult daughter treated them like family. Ilamparuthi notices that the young couple are quite spendthrift with their expenditure. While he tries to save as much as he can for rainy days, the younger generation generally does not save. Problems brewed when Eshwar decided to buy a car. The porch space is a wee bit too tight for Eshwar’s car and Ilamparuthi’s motorbike.
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| M S Bhaskar |
It started with the bike grazing the car. A tiff, an exchange of harsh words, and before both realised it, it snowballed to something of a mammoth scale.
The thrifty Ilamparuthi buys a car with cash to compete for a parking spot on the duplex porch. All hell breaks loose as common decency, respect and humanity are clouded by bulging ego.
The thrifty Ilamparuthi buys a car with cash to compete for a parking spot on the duplex porch. All hell breaks loose as common decency, respect and humanity are clouded by bulging ego.
A well-made drama with excellent acting and a nice pace to build the suspense. Kudos to MS Bhaskar, as the stingy, domineering and frustrated middle-aged civil servant who single-handedly carried the weight of the film. The supporting actors, too, did a decent job of carrying on. Just overlook certain boo-boos (or Easter eggs) that are pretty glaring to police procedural or murder mystery enthusiasts; they nicely put a poetic end to the story.
