Dominic And The Ladies' Purse directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon is a Mammootty starrer detective thriller releasing on January 23, 2025. The movie marks Gautham Menon's first directorial release in Malayalam. Dominic And The Ladies' Purse is a story by Dr. Neeraj Rajan, who is also a screenwriter on the movie alongside Gautham Menon and Dr. Sooraj Rajan.
Gautham Menon predominantly makes movies in Tamil, and Dr Neeraj is a writer in Malayalam Cinema. Talking with Baradwaj Rangan about how their synergy came together, the director of Dominic And The Ladies' Purse revealed,
"I met Dr. Neeraj because of (actress) Manju Warrier. Manju and I wanted to do a film where she acts, and she brought this writer to me to Chennai. Neeraj Rajan narrated a story to me, for me to direct and Manju to act, and somewhere that didn't really take off.
Keeping in touch with the writer (Neeraj Rajan), I asked him if he's got other ideas. Dr Neeraj Rajan has already been part of writing with this Malyalam film 'ABCD' (2013 black comedy produced by Shibu Thameens and starring Dulquer Salmaan). And he works with director Martin Prakkat whose work I really like. So Neeraj Rajan narrated the story of Dominic, who is a detective and an ex-police officer. I sensed a wordhouse-ian sort of story or an idea here, and worked around that.
There was a lot of writing that still needed to be done on Dominic And The Ladies' Purse. There was a story and a screenplay that Dr. Neeraj and his brother Sooraj made. I worked on the screenplay myself because I believe when you go to the sets (for shooting), the screenplay has to be the director's.
Neeraj is on-the-money sort of a writer (when it came to bridging the barrier between a Tamil director's vision and Malayalam filmmaking). Neeraj is a doctor by profession but he is very good with the general appreciation and knowledge of films, It (Dominic And The Ladies' Purse) was a great team work. "
Just like Dominic and The Ladies' Purse, ABCD aka American Born Confused Desi has story by the Sooraj-Neeraj duo, and they also served as screenwriters alongside Naveen Bhaskar, and director Martin Prakkat on the film. ABCD was a commercial success at the time of its release 12 years ago.