Karthi, a disgruntled assistant on commercial productions, is working on an honest, personal film script, but his project is without industry backers. In the dispiriting pursuit of his dream, he loses his love and sinks into alcoholism, until he meets a kindred spirit adrift in the world. Fire on Water, the sophomore feature from Sun-J Perumal (Thaipoosam, 2007), zeroes in on a highly particular and rarely seen milieu: the travails of artistically minded filmmakers within the Tamil media industry in Malaysia.