Dominic and The Ladies Purse (Malayalam)
The messy blue walls and the posters lying about in the quaint house can at once look charming and chaotic, especially when a man appears to slip in and out of it, making a home of the lousy bed on the floor and the omelettes he whips up every morning. With his legendary aura and sporting a beard, Mammootty manages to squeeze into this crowded space and look comfortable as Dominic, the eponymous character of his new movie with director Gautham Vasudev Menon.
The renowned director of many Tamil romances and thrillers makes his debut in Malayalam with Dominic and the Ladies' Purse, a movie that seems like a perfect blend of thriller and humour with a star playing a boastful detective, an admiring Watson-like sidekick, and beautiful women flowing in and stealing the show. But on screen, it becomes a poor copy of what must have been wonderful on the script.
Mammootty looks flexible as ever, a world away from the scary figure in Bramayugam, the heartbroken Mathew in Kathal, and even the tough cop in Kannur Squad. Dominic too had been in the police force once, but after years at it, he has become a private detective, turning his rented house into an office and hiring a new assistant now and then. Mammootty maintains the mystery around Dominic for most of the film, letting sides of him unroll stage by stage.
Everything at first seems to be about money for Dominic. When his landlady (a quite fitting Viji Venkatesh) comes to him with someone’s lost purse and a quest to find its owner, detective Dominic is least inclined to take up the case. He argues that there isn’t likely to be any money in it, and asks who would pay him if the owner refused to.
Dominic is clearly not doing well financially, he is behind on rent, leaves the coffee bill to his assistant, and finds shady stories to get money out of people. There is some amount of humour in the obviously stagey actions — detective barging into someone’s room holding an unsteady phone camera as the occupants ask silly questions.
Dominic is also shown to be quite boastful of his exploits, in a Shikari Shambu way, though it turns out he really is good at his job if he puts his mind to it. He hires an assistant (Gokul Suresh) who looks rich and won’t need much of a salary, and has a motorcycle that Dominic could take rides on. Gokul plays the perfect Watson, unabashed in his admiration, his lines reminiscent of old Tamil movies where a junior cop would keep telling his senior, “Super, sir!”
The twist, as it happens in many detective stories, comes with the entry of a beautiful woman. Sushmitha Bhat, playing a dancer, brings the jolt that Dominic appeared to need to be active again, to work for the love of work, and run to far ends seeking answers.
Unfortunately, the music, even when it comes from Darbuka Siva who gave us the unforgettable “Maruvaarthai” (in another Gautham Menon film), is unfitting and disappointing. If the birthday song that Gokul sings and Mammootty dances to is meant to appear funny, it fails even as an act of self-deprecation.
The stunts too – with actors like Shine Tom Chacko and Dinesh Prabhakar – look sad. Only, the thriller proceeds in a straight line, with the logical inputs you expect in a smooth detective story. The script that Gautham wrote with Neeraj Rajan and Sooraj Rajan has material that looks right. But it is only towards the end that it starts to look interesting on screen.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the producers or any other members of its cast and crew.