Dominic and the Ladies' Purse

Dominic and the Ladies’ Purse is an unlikely Gautham Menon film in a positive sense, from the way it’s visualised, shot and edited. The leisurely yet consistently engaging investigation thriller is built on a juicy premise centred around a lost ladies purse that leads a former cop-turned-detective to a missing couple, a mystery that only gets murkier with time. Even while catering to the star in Mammootty, the film doesn’t lose its way and culminates with a pulpy, edge-of-the-seat finale. Sushmitha Bhatt is a surprise find, with Gokul Suresh, Viji Venkatesh and Vineeth chipping in with impressive performances.

Malayalam superstar Mammootty and his film choices in the last couple of years have been incredible and eye-opening. From doing a Kaathal to Bramayugam, the actor is all in for experimental films and giving his all to every choice he makes. And when he chooses to join hands with Tamil filmmaker Gautham Menon, it certainly excites every film buff who has followed their career paths. Has Dominic and The Ladies’ Purse lived up to expectations? Let’s find out! Dominic (Mammootty) is a former police officer who now runs a detective agency. He is a laid-back guy with a quirky sense of humour. As he undergoes some financial issues, his landlady gives him a task to find the owner of a purse she found. In return, she will waive the rent. Dominic and his aide (Gokul Suresh) go on a mission to find the owner of the purse.

Private eye Dominic, like all wannabe Sherlocks, has a habit of making quick deductions about other people just from their appearances. But, unlike in most other films, the protagonist of Gautham Vasudev Menon’s Dominic And The Ladies’ Purse gets it wrong in the opening sequence when he makes assumptions about a person aspiring to be his assistant. It is a delightful subversion of the overused detective trope, which fills one with hope for what is to follow. Unfortunately, the film does not always live up to this early promise except in a few interesting patches. Gautam Menon, in his first Malayalam outing, appears to be in a bit of a dilemma as to how to treat the star at the centre of his film. While there are a few scenes lampooning the pompous private detective Dominic (Mammootty), there are an equal number of scenes of his assistant (Gokul Suresh) being amazed by his investigative abilities.

At one point in Dominic and the Ladies’ Purse, a classic Gautham Menon-esque heroine enters the world of Dominic (Mammootty). She’s cultured, performs Bharatanatyam, speaks a bit of Tamil and Malayalam, and the English too flows elegantly. Dominic, a middle-aged single man, seems drawn to her, and if you have seen Yennai Arindhaal, you know this isn’t unfamiliar territory for the filmmaker. Except. It is. Even if initially, this might feel like an indulgent distraction from the case Dominic is so fixated on, when a revelation is presented, everything changes. It’s perhaps the earliest sign that this isn’t a film keen to populate its world with characters or relationships as cursory additions. In this world, every element, every human, exists for a reason. Even a random stranger bumping into Dominic in the beginning, gets revisited. Or take an angle that’s more substantial, like the corporate organisation subplot: you think it’s a red herring perhaps, just a way for the film to buy some time to delay the reveal of the real culprit. Yet, it evolves into something transformative, humanising one character while driving another’s arc forward. It’s a film filled with such subtle, beautiful subversions.

10 minutes into Gautham Vasudev Menon’s Dominic And The Ladies’ Purse is all it takes for one to fall in love with CI Dominic (Mammootty), the eccentric, pompous detective with a serious cash-flow issue. We meet him through Vicky (Gokul Suresh), Dominic’s new “Watson” on his first day of work, in what can best be described as a “zero introduction” scene. Dominic works out of his dilapidated home-office filled with props and furniture (his office chair is an abandoned salon seat) well past its glory days. So when he hires Vicky in a matter of seconds, it’s probably not because he’s finally found an intellectual equal, it’s just that Vicky has enough money at home to not ask for a salary.

No one parodies Gautham Menon’s films better than the director himself. A few minutes into Dominic and the Ladies’ Purse, we see a middle-aged married man lying in a hotel room bed with his mistress. The camera captures them from a top angle as he delivers the iconic line from Vaaranam Aayiram (2008), “Inga yaarum ivlo azhaga oru ponna paathuruka maataan." This memorable dialogue catapulted Gautham to stardom, not just in Tamil Nadu but also in Kerala. Seventeen years later, the director transforms it into a self-deprecating joke in his Malayalam debut— a film that is noticeably devoid of his signature style, trademarks, and aesthetics. With Dominic and the Ladies’ Purse, Gautham brings an air of effortless charm, much like the film’s laid-back protagonist, CI Dominic (Mammootty). The usual deliberate effort to establish a distinct voice or tone in his films is replaced by a sense of restraint and candidness, which, at times, makes the film feel a bit flat.