His mother called from the kitchen. "Kanna? Did you finish?"

Karthik looked at his own father's dialysis machine in the corner of the room. Everyone is fighting for rent, he thought.

"Super da machi. Theater la poirukka chance illa. Nee veetla kaatnadhukku nandri." (Thanks, bro. I didn't have a chance to go to the theater. Thanks for showing it at home.)

Lakshmi sighed. His father, a retired weaver from Kanchipuram, had failing kidneys. The ₹5-per-click ad revenue from KuttyMovies, the PayPal deposits from overseas Tamil fans who couldn't wait for the DVD—it was ugly money, but it was money.