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By scotthgilliland on April 9, 2026 |
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A Letter for Tomorrow is a heartfelt and terrific short film that does absolutely everything right and is an absolute must-watch. With a strong script and fabulous performances, it is a film you can’t keep your eyes from.
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In the midst of a divorce, Vidya (Gayathrie Shankar) lives in a multi-generational matriarchal household and embraces her true identity as a lesbian. While her mother, Meera (Maala Parvathi), fights for her job, her grandmother, Shanti (Rajini Chandy), reacts to upsetting news from a friend.
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The strength of A Letter for Tomorrow lies in its exploration of the struggles faced by all three generations of the household. With the youngest Vidya, we have a young woman who is finally trying to stand on her own feet and discover and embrace her sexuality. Yet she is hindered; her future ex-husband’s lawyer still makes a point of talking only to him, even when she is the one who asked the question. It’s a cultural issue that isn’t likely to fade away anytime soon, as we see with Meera later on. She wants to go to university and study to further her career, but she isn’t anywhere in line for a promotion. Vidya is stuck; she can’t move forward and allow her sexuality to take its public form properly, and she can’t further herself economically because she is a very good, but cheap hand at her place of work.
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Meera’s challenges are not tied to her sexuality but to societal ageism. Only in her late 50s she is already deemed too old, and her employers want a younger woman in her stead. It’s devastating that she has been given this shelf life and expected just to accept a pension that most likely would not be presented to her if she were a male. She wants stability and to know that Vidya will be okay financially, as Meera will not be. So, she pushes for her daughter to try again with her marriage despite knowing Vidya can’t.
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With Shanti, her issues seem far more trivial, but they are important; she is older and has only one main friend left in the world. After finding out she is moving away, she shuts down and pushes her away, losing that one connection to someone who understands her. It shows the importance of having a community around you. As you get older, you are left alone, relying on family in some form or another. It is what makes A Letter for Tomorrow such a well-thought-out story. We are given these little glimpses into each woman’s separate life and their constant struggles, and then we get to see how that affects them as a unit. Your heart goes out to them at every turn. Mahesh Menon and Aalisha Sheth have given us such a great script here that you truly wish you had longer with each character.
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The film is so effective in tackling the distinct issues in each woman’s life, and while Vidya’s is far more complex due to her sexuality, we see that she isn’t the only one struggling in some form. We are seeing the futures for all of these women, who only want to live the lives they want, to forge a career, or to keep excelling in the one they have carefully and dedicated their lives to. The performances of our three leads are terrific, all in their own unique ways. With Gayathrie Shankar, you are almost constantly devastated for her. She is in no man’s land in her life, and she portrays that desperate, lost demeanour so well. When we reach the end of the film, and we see that glimmer, that tiny little glimmer of what Vidya’s life could potentially look like when she gets to feel like the real here, you are elated for the character, and that is thanks to the performance.
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Maala Parvathi is just as great here in A Letter for Tomorrow, like Shankar’s; it’s a role that you immediately resonate with. A woman who has rebuilt an institution from the ground up is suddenly on the verge of being replaced solely because of her age, and now a fresh, younger version can come in and practically take the glory with none of the hardships that came before. She is on the edge emotionally, so when Vidya explodes with her heartache at not being able to be her true self, it looks as if it’s too much for Meera to handle. It’s such a delicate performance from Parvathi that you are only impressed at what she can do in so few minutes.
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There is a visually powerful moment when we are in a static shot of the dining room, with the characters distant from one another. As the characters begin their argument, the camera lifts and follows them into the next room, as if we are the noisy person hiding in the back of the room who just couldn’t help but get a bit closer to hear what was being said. It’s a fantastic little touch that works so well, you wish the story continued so we could see more flourishes like this to help push it forward.
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A Letter for Tomorrow is essential viewing, and one that leaves you wanting so much more, while also being well satisfied with our character’s endpoint. It showcases Mahesh Menon as a voice that we need to hear more from in the future.
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I am but a small website in this big, wide world. As much as I would love to make this website a big and wonderful entity. That would bring in more costs. So, for now, all I hope is to make Upcoming On Screen self-sufficient. Well, enough to make any website fees less of a worry for me in the future. You can support the website below…
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You can support us in a variety of ways (other than that wonderful word of mouth) and those lovely follows. If you are so inclined to help us out then you can support us via Patreon, find our link here!. We don’t want to ask you much, so for now, we have limited our tiers to £1.50 and £3.50. These will, of course, grow the more we plan to do here at Upcoming On Screen.
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Thanks for reading; every view helps us out more than you would think (we have fragile egos). Until next time.
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