Directed by Sushrut Jain
USA/English, Hindi with subtitles
2020
111 min

Sushrut Jain returns to 3rd i this year (Beyond All Boundaries, 2013) with his “dramedy” The Tenant, starring Shamita Shetty in a story of an unlikely friendship.

When Meera (Shetty) moves into a housing complex in the suburbs of Mumbai, she is immediately the target of gossip, desire and disdain from the other tenants. The film introduces viewers to how teenagers negotiate India’s conservative gender codes, and exposes how women, when living on their own terms, are the target of patriarchal criticism. With sensitive perception, director Sushrut Jain drives home these cultural realities through the story of a boy learning how to treat a woman with dignity. Is Meera a woman of bad character like everyone says, or the smart, sensitive person he knows? How he reacts will determine the man he will grow up to be.