With deep roots in the country, Indians form the third largest ethnic group in Malaysia. But it's only now that the first homegrown Tamil-language feature film has been produced in Malaysia-strikingly, from the indie sector. Deepak Kumaran Menon's quietly assured debut is based on his mother's teenage experiences of growing up on a rubber plantation in the 1960s and becomes a rubric of personal struggle against tradition and, on a wider plane, for the assertion of (Tamil) identity. Diligent daughter and student Shanta is close to realizing her dream to attend university. But her rural family has other priorities for her-plantation work, marriage, and subordination of her ambition to the plans for her brothers. In pursuit of her dream, Shanta also rebuffs the romantic advances of an endearing neighbor, whose prospects are signaled by the constant breaking down of his aging moped. Deploying a gentle observational style in the tradition of early Satyajit Ray, Menon captures the stifling atmosphere of rural life: its routineness, afternoon heat, and family obligations. Against these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Shanta's determination for self-advancement is all the more admirable. Like its protagonist, the film's gentleness is deceptive. Beneath its quiet surface lies a determined, precise, and unswerving vision that seems more mature than Menon's young age would suggest.