The Tablet: A Small Film About Large Silences

Premiered at BIFFes, The Tablet reveals Aravind Siva as a filmmaker of realism and restraint, where patience allows anxiety, care and hope to surface through everyday life.

Aditya+Shrikrishna

Feb 05, 2026

Still from The Tablet.

ARAVIND SIVA’s Tamil film The Tablet begins innocently. Prabhu (Hemanathan), ten years old, is getting ready for school, and our point of view is his goody boy face as he shuffles through things in his modest home. He finds what he’s looking for and is eager to get out when his mother insists on combing his hair. He goes to school and calls his friend Ramesh outside. In the few seconds it takes for the friend to answer his call, two smug-looking boys playfully tease him before Ramesh joins, and they run away from the densely concentrated areas of the school. Prabhu gives Ramesh the tablet he’s stolen from home and says it is for immunity and strength, and both can put on some weight and become strong. Ramesh takes it promptly, and during the morning assembly, he faints.

The Tablet premiered this week at the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) as part of the Asian Cinema Competition. Written by Siva in his debut directorial, the film maintains the mystery of the tablet well past the halfway point of the film. Kayal (Raichal) is a single mother who works as a grocery store attendant in Sivakasi. Outside of Prabhu, her only family is her brother Guna. Siva lets on that Guna is her only confidante, and they are both planning to go to Chennai at the end of the week. What for? We will learn later. Siva neatly lines up small-town sensibilities of the film, neither villainising nor valorising anything. The grocery store owner makes a comment on employing educated women when Kayal asks for leave. Prabhu’s schoolteacher, Divya, played by Mullaiyarasi, is understanding and even apologetic when she demonstrates mild curiosity about the tablet.

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These are the moments where we get nuggets about Kayal’s well-guarded life. We can see that hers is a normal life, the usual struggle in keeping a job, taking care of her only son and making ends meet while also looking after both their health. Siva illustrates this through simple scenes like Kayal thinking twice before giving in to ice cream. She comes up with three different lies to three different people about the trip to Chennai. But something else is out of the ordinary about her that makes her feel regretful and small, embarrassed even. We soon deduce that she and her son are HIV survivors. A tense scene occurs in the government hospital. Kayal visits to get the medicine that is not available in the local pharmacy, and she is made to wait for the doctor. Siva films this from a distance in the hospital corridor, and while the camera doesn’t move, Kayal’s anxiety gradually escalates. She is worried about her ailment becoming public, about being late for work and the availability of the medicine. The nurse whispers a snide comment, and she walks out. Siva demonstrates tremendous control over his shot here. It is only a medium shot, and we cannot even register the contours of Raichal’s — a terrific performer whose best turn came in Good Night (2023) — face, but her mere physicality and fidgety disposition convey the point.

The film grammar here is unorthodox for the usual mainstream Tamil cinema. It is mostly filmed in static shots with little to no camera movement or score, and hardly makes a big deal about the tablet. It doesn’t even insist that we must know what is ailing Prabhu and his mother. The ambition here is to be as realistic as possible. A male teacher in school nonchalantly beats up his students and orders imposition. The assembly in the government school consists of some marching instructions followed by the most reluctant recitation of a Thirukkural verse before the National Anthem. People speak without dramatics and the tone is observational. The film communicates the mother’s anxiety just by using top-angle shots at her home with the simple sound of a lizard chirping, as she searches for the tablet or packs for the bus to Chennai. It’s not surprising that before this, Aravind Siva assisted PS Vinothraj in his debut film Koozhangal (2021).

ALSO READ | Director Vinothraj P S on Koozhangal’s entry to Oscars: ‘Focused on making an honest and simple film’

Watch Koozhangal here, via OTTplay!

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Shot by Vinoj Kaveri, The Tablet has modest ambitions and hits them all, making for a promising debut from Aravind Siva, a voice to watch out for. The ending is quietly reassuring. Prabhu asks his mother if actors like Sivakarthikeyan live in Chennai. She says yes, but adds that a lot of ordinary people like themselves live in Chennai too. It says something about the kind of stories Siva wants to tell.

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