Mathil 2021

Lakshmikanthan loses his father when he is 10 years old. His landlord protests and does not allow Lakshmikanthan’s father’s body to be kept inside their house. As a result, the body gets drenched in rain. It hits Lakshmikanthan hard and he understands that people are respected even at death only if you have an own house. Decades later, a 58-year-old Lakshmikanthan begins to build his dream house. He loves his new house built with his hard-earned savings. He has an amateur theatre troupe and is a successful playwright and actor. A politician reserves Lakshmikanthan’s wall for his party’s campaign by writing his party’s name. Lakshmikanthan repaints his wall. But the next day, the same politician’s men paint his face on the wall. Lakshmikanthan gets furious and repaints his wall again and lodges a complaint against the politician. One thing leads to another and the politician creates tough situations for Lakshmikanthan using his political power. How a common man using his wit and aged theatre crew challenges and wins over the politician forms the rest of the story. —Promita Mukherjee