Dominic And The Ladies Purse Review..!!
A private detective agency is operating in a busy city like Ernakulam, attending to petty cases and the protagonist of the story is just another ordinary guy. This is the premise of Gautham Vasudev Menon’s debut directorial in Malayalam. The protagonist, C I Dominic, is played by none other than Mammootty and more importantly, this film is bankrolled by Mammootty Kampany. Dominic is clever, crafty and acts more like a conman. Yet, we see a nonchalant and unwavering protagonist who isn’t burdened with hard feelings. He has been looking for an assistant, who could work for him free of cost. Also, he owes money to his house owner but they don’t share an unfavorable rapport with each other.
Dominic’s day to day life is explored with humor in the beginning. The protagonist’s characteristics are clearly established here. The light hearted episodes work and the events develop like in a comedy movie. Finally, Dominic lands onto something of value and he has a worthy case to investigate. Even here, Dominic never wanted to do it for himself but was compelled to. We see a lot about Dominic here in the opening scenes. He has a version to explain about himself but less we know about his shady past. The audience are curious to dig deeper into his character. And, this is the beauty of the protagonist’s arc. He isn’t explored completely. All we get to know is that he is living in the present and is a bit wily. Yet, there are people around him who help him without being prejudicial. He is smart, brilliant and we feel he is fairly underrated among the force. It is because he is not so enjoying a good reputation among his peers.
Dominic is funny and can deal any situation effortlessly. Even when he gets into trouble, it seems he always has a plan B to get himself out of the trouble. Despite some bothering past, all the events around him in the initial one hour are toned down and evoke laughter. There is no serious mood till the investigation episodes start to build up. This transition is something that needed a more cinematic execution to build the interest. The thrills are limited and the investigation episodes are very basic in nature. There aren’t much interesting elements or the usual plot deviations to stretch the investigation episodes are plain ordinary. The serious nature is evident in the far end of the film. An extended climax has its own merits but it was highly foreseeable ending. What makes it different is the additional layer of unpredictability, which is what the makers might have perceived as the major highlight of the film. But it is not exactly the ‘cherry on top’ sort of moment.
The climax execution and a haunting background score raise the excitement but it is not entirely a high-stake moment. The unravelling could have been much better, had the preceding episodes added more thrills and thus building a shock value. As mentioned earlier, the makers wanted to focus on that highly unpredictable layer and wanted to shock the viewers with the revelation. The latter half demanded more than this shocking experience at the end. It is evident that the entire film worked around an actor like Mammootty and even the post climax sequence was a letdown. The performance of the cast was mostly decent to satisfactory. It was Mammootty’s character Dominic that shoulders the entire film. His presence and charisma could negate a lot of issues with the script and the grounded cinematic treatment is another factor that makes the story telling slow-paced.
Gautam Vasudev Menon’s Malayalam debut hasn’t come off well and the bulk of the issues is with the screenplay in the second half. We have seen his most sought-after cop films in Tamil. He has tried to portray a different cop character in this film and does not have the grandeur of the other three. The decision to bring a top star to play this lead role definitely helped the film to fly off. Darbuka Siva has done a great job, especially the semi- classical music segment is heavily engrossing. Overall, Dominic And The Ladies Purse is humorous with no fancy setups but drawn-out investigation episodes generate less thrills.