''To Let'' is a 2017 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-language

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written, directed and filmed by

Chezhiyan Chezhiyan is an Indian filmmaker and director of photography who works primarily in the Tamil film industry. He received critical acclaim for his work in ''Kalloori'' (2007), '' Paradesi'' (2013) and '' To Let'' (2017). Early life and educatio ...

. Produced by his wife Prema, the film stars Santhosh Sreeram, Suseela and Dharun as a family living in a rented house who are ordered by their landlady (Aadhira Pandilakshmi) to vacate. At the

65th National Film Awards The 65th National Film Awards ceremony was an event during which the Directorate of Film Festivals presented its annual National Film Awards to honour the best films of 2017 in Indian cinema. The awards were announced on 13 April 2018. The awar ...

, it won in the category Best Feature Film in Tamil. At the 49th International film festival of India, Goa it won Special jury mention award in international competition. The film theatrically released on 21 February 2019 to highly positive reviews from critics, and became a success in box office.

Plot

Illango is an assistant film director living with his wife Amudha and their five-year-old son Siddharth in a rented apartment. Their landlady is eager to lease that house to IT professionals for a higher rent, so she issues the family a 30-day notice to vacate.

Cast

* Santhosh Sreeram as Illango *

Sheela Rajkumar Sheela Rajkumar (born 14 June 1992) is an Indian actress and Bharatanatyam dancer who has worked predominantly in Tamil films. Career Sheela is a Bharatanatyam dancer and a trainer. She joined the Chennai-based theatre group Koothu-P-Pattara ...

as Amudha * Dharun as Siddharth * Aadhira Pandilakshmi as the landowner

Production

''To Let'' is the directorial debut of

, and was produced by his wife Prema under the couple's own company La Cinema. Chezhiyan also handled the cinematography and wrote the script. Unlike in most Tamil films, he avoided including songs, claiming, "As we move closely towards realistic cinema, the first element that make an exit is the music. The sound of radio and television, the conversation of people and an auto on the road compensate for the music". The film was completed in 25 days, and the cast were all newcomers.

Release and reception

''To Let'' was screened at numerous film festivals in 2017 and 2018, and was theatrically released on 21 February 2019. At the

, it won in the category Best Feature Film in Tamil. It won the Best Indian film award in the Kolkata International film festivalKolkata International film festival
/ref> Indian films competition in November 2017. It participated in Indian language competition in Bengaluru International film festival and won the

FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...

award 2018. It was selected in IFFI Goa 2018 in three major categories - International Competition, Centenary Award for the Best Debut Feature Film of a Director and Indian Panorama.

References

External links

* {{National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil 2010s Tamil-language films 2017 directorial debut films 2017 drama films 2017 films Best Tamil Feature Film National Film Award winners Indian drama films