Dominic And The Ladies' Purse Review - Few thrills but a certain low key charm works!

PUBLISHED DATE : 25/Jan/2025

Dominic And The Ladies' Purse Review -  Few thrills but a certain low key charm works!

Dominic And The Ladies' Purse Review -  Few thrills but a certain low key charm works!

Bharath Vijayakumar


In Gautham's directorial debut in Malayalam, Dominic and The Ladies' Purse, Mammootty plays a private detective. It is the kind of a standard template film if you just go by the plot. A not so popular detective, goes on to solve a case that keeps taking unexpected turns. But Dominic and The Ladies' Purse is more about getting to know the person that Dominic is, and can even be considered as a film that is focused on establishing his character with the audience. And this can be taken forward in further installments, if that was the intention.

This is a very different outing for Gautham. Flamboyance takes a back seat, except a few occasions. The mood is pretty much what you saw in the trailer. The film is unhurried and tries to create what you can define as a 'low key charm'. For a while this really works and the subtle humour does the trick. But once the major investigation begins, the results are a mixed bag. Dominic being subtle and cool and not showing urgency is fine. But we as the audience ought to feel some tension or atleast be glued to the investigation right? Or if this wasn't the intention, then there should atleast be a little more humour or something that keeps us intrigued. If even this wasn't the intention and if all they were going for is a very realistic film with an unhurried narration,  then the runtime should have been much lesser. The film runs for around 150 minutes.

The twist or unexpected reveal does work. Though it isn't something that hasn't been explored before,  it is quite convincingly done and there is a very good chance that you won't see it coming. Well, what do you have to say about Mammootty? It may seem as though he is sleepwalking but you get to know so much about the character by the time the film ends. He plays someone who isn't going to emote on your face but is actually quite an emotional person. This film may or may not work for you but in most probability you would be rooting for Dominic by the time the film ends, and a lot of credit for this should go to Mammootty.

Bottomline


Dominic and The Ladies' Purse is what you may call a harmless watch. Being an investigative drama, you probably are wanting a lot of thrills. But this isn't that kind of a film. It is going for something else and in that regard it does a reasonably neat job of what it had set out to.

Rating: 2.75/5

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