The Tenant is the story of Meera aka Soniya (Shamita Shetty) who comes as a tenant alone in a housing society and disturbs the old class peace over there with her modern lifestyle & scandalous past.
Even it’s the story of the tenant though it revolves around 13-year-old school going boy, Bharat who is on his summer vacations.
Like all the protagonist in child dramas, Bharat is shown slightly different, edgy than his friends. He has a sharp thinking, bold personality & open-minded thoughts which are limited to himself. In his growing age, he starts getting closer to Meera with some common neighbouring habitual like visiting, helping & looking after her.
In two-three interactions even Meera finds him a gentleman & they went on to share a good bond of friendship through their mini tour in the outskirts of the city. Bharat likes her being close to him while Meera gets someone who can fill her loneliness.
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On the other hand, the old school society members and families start gossiping about Meera & her modernism, it starts with her smoking habits, dressing style, her being with guy friends & eventually about her overall character. The females in the society see her as a competition while men can’t take eyes out of her but never admits.
First half of the film tracks slow pace to settle down the condition and adjust the voyeuristic approach of Bharat & other society members towards Meera. In the second half, pages turns and we get to see many developments in the single track story. The tenant Meera gets accused of using a false identity while Bharat finds her real name & came to know about her scandalous past.
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The film overall captures a lot of things than the happenings around Meera & her entry into the housing society. It casts how typical mindset towards women & an unhealthy relationship between a married couple can create impacts on their children’ behaviour. It points out how a 13-year-old boy wants to stop his mom to do things out of her league, how a middle-class husband is ignorant towards his wife & how a coming to an age kid wants to explore things in a different way.
Playing a school going boy, Rudhraksh Jaiswal has done phenomenally great job, leading the screen without any bloomers, while making her comeback after years Shamita Shetty fits well into the character effortlessly. Her natural acting and way of living could have been altered a bit but it seems okay at some parts.
Swanand Kirkire does descent job as Mr. Mishra while Sheeba Chadha finds her moments as Mrs. Mishra. Atul Srivastava as Bharat’s dad, surprises with his character, all thanks to the writer while Divya Jagdale lends very fine support as Bharat’s mother.
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Sushrut Jain anchors the crew with his different vision into the direction & keeps the story & dialogues low key. The climax of the story is as predictable as it can be with the single track throughout the film but it put the audience in awe in the end. Talking about the cinematography, it gets us 10 years back suiting the genre of the film & all the vintage aesthetic frames does the pretty job.
Ratings: 4/5