House Owner is a 2019 Indian Tamil language action drama film written and directed by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan. The film is produced by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan’s husband Ramakrishnan under his production banner Monkey Creative Labs. The film stars Kishore, Sriranjini, Pasanga Kishore and Lovelyn in the lead roles. M. Ghibran composed the background score of the film. Principal photography commenced on 10 July 2018. The film had its theatrical release on 28 June 2019 and received positive reviews from critics.
The film announcement was made by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan in 2017 who also revealed that the film is set against the backdrop of 2015 Chennai floods. The director revealed that she started writing the script for the film in 2016. The film is taunted to be about love story despite set on the backdrop against the floods. Newcomer Lovelyn, daughter of Viji Chandrasekhar was hired to play the female lead. Kishore signed the film to act in the male lead role and also it is his second successive film after Kadikara Manithargal based on house related matters.
House Owner doesn’t have the template low and high graphs we often see in commercial movies. The story revolves around a rainy day in the lives of Vasu (Kishore) and Radha (Sri Ranjini), an elderly couple, who has made Chennai their home since quite some time. Vasu, who has retired from the Army, has been suffering from Alzheimer’s and Radha has a tough time dealing with her husband’s adamant and child-like behaviour. For most of the time, the scenes revolve around their activities at home, apart from the flashback episodes, which keep appearing often, featuring the couple in their younger romantic days.
The flow of the sequences here is generic and unpredictable, making it difficult for one to judge the genre of the film. A lion’s share of the scenes have Kishore and Sri Ranjini apart from ‘Pasanga’ Kishore and Lovelyn Chandrasekhar, who respectively play the former’s younger days. One of the positive aspects of the movie is the effortless performance by the artistes and the way their relationship touches us through candid moments.
There are a few characters, whose presence is made felt even without them appearing on screen. At a point, when you feel that the film is all about some of the interesting anecdotes from two phases of their lives with no detailing on other characters, there occurs an unexpected element, after which you are in for an edge-of-the-seat ride. Interestingly, you realise that the surprising element has been built up gradually, but not evidently which helps in making the audience glued to the happenings towards the end of the story. Krishna Sekhar’s cinematography and Ghibran’s music elevate the mood and required tension in many scenes.
Directed by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan
Produced by Gopalakrishnan Ramakrishnan
Written by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan
Screenplay by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan
Based on 2015 Chennai floods
Starring Kishore, Sriranjini, Pasanga Kishore, Lovelyn
Music by Mohamaad Ghibran
Cinematography Krishna Sekhar TS
Edited by CS Prem Kumar
Production Monkey Creative Labs
Release date 28 June 2019
Country India
Language Tamil
