To Let (2019): A film about a social-economic problem told through powerful metaphors and imagery
The first thing that came into my mind when I first finished watching to let (2019) is that Chezhiyan has created a film that perfectly draws the line of artistic cinema. What I mean by this it perfectly sits on a narrowing line between artistic cinema and commercial cinema even though at the end it will be categorized as “mainstream cinema” because Tamil cinema does not have a so called “parallel cinema” like in Malayalam and Bengali. No matter what type of film one makes it must be made for the mainstream there has never been any way around this. So, when looking at to let it has this significance of being closest to what we can call artistic cinema in the Tamil Industry and Chezhiyan manages to create a remarkable film of a specific social-economic problem.
To let talks about the social-economic disparity that occurs to the renting markets in sub urban Chennai during the huge IT boom from 2007. A lower middle-class family of three trying to make their ends meet are living in a rented house until the house owner demand’s them to vacate the house before a certain date. This leaves them to find another house which becomes difficult. Illango the father tries to make a living by becoming a writer and a filmmaker. Amudha who is the wife makes her living by being a housewife and then there is Siddharth their son. The director like I told creates a social commentary of the disparity by telling us that due to this economic boom certain people are left out or are helpless for things they did not wish. But the most intriguing aspect is like I said is that the director conveys the social commentary through a beautiful cinematic conversion. The director shows how he links consecutive scenes through metaphorical imaging or character actions. For example, before Amudha receives the bad news of vacating from the house owner she tells her husband to cook this dosa till she comes back and after she receives the bad news, she gets frustrated and the dosa becomes burnt and thrown out. This just tells us that there is a struggle and impending problem for them or how their son wears a lion’s mask and asks his father to play with him being the rat and devouring him. This is just a subtext for the scene where the house owner (who is a stern and cynical women) tells her to vacate. There is much of these subtexts throughout the film and the director creates what I call some pure cinematic metaphors. Another example is when another family come to see them house, they stand up and are positioned in such a way that they look like convicts. It creates this emotion of helplessness and disownment in a place they thought they were welcome.
Chezhiyan also shows all the struggles in finding a house for rent, like how one family asks if ‘they are vegetarian’? or how another one asks them ‘What caste are you?’ to which the broker trying to fix them a house eventually lies to them and says they are from the same community. The director mends all of this social commentary that always occurs in a country like India. They also eventually use a fake visiting card to convey that Illango is an I.T. Professional. It is through this many lies and deceptions and humiliation they must struggle through to find a house and the director is telling us the struggle is also because of many other social factors. This I believe is quite important and many when watching the film, you can see the many metaphors and subtexts woven in beautifully. Another aspect in which I want to praise the director is how he has used no songs and even no music for the background. He is trying to tell us this is all real and not some fantasy. But what he does brilliantly is use original and real songs played on the background which syncs wonderfully to the situation of the scene.
This is a film that comes close to realism and cinematic as possible in Tamil cinema and it won a national award and deservingly so. It is an important film and it may not be of the similar taste or formula of Tamil cinema but regardless a film that shows an important problem even today.