The
Mammootty-starrer
is
a
passable
procedural,
let
down
by
half-baked
ideas
that
don’t
necessarily
come
together,
observes
Arjun
Menon.
Gautham
Vasudev
Menon
is
a
filmmaker
prone
to
‘ideas’.
When
you
look
at
his
body
of
work,
you
can
see
the
director
working
his
way
through
seemingly
simple
longlines
in
the
search
for
an
invigorating
cinematic
experience.
Dominic
And
The
Ladies
Purse,
his
debut
outing
in
Malayalam
cinema,
is
a
testament
to
his
fascination
with
genre
material.
Like
in
many
of
his
past
films,
a
spark
of
an
idea,
a
character
beat,
or
a
single
event
can
be
fodder
enough
for
a
film
deserving
of
the
‘GVM’
treatment.
Dominic
is
one
of
his
better
outings
in
recent
times
that
looks,
feels
and
builds
up
like
a
‘Gautham
Vasudevan
Menon’
affair.
Dominic
starts
with
a
kernel
of
a
great
‘meta’
idea.
What
if
Mammootty
plays
a
Sherlock
Holmes-inspired
smart-alecky
private
detective
in
Kochi,
with
a
younger
Watson
accompanying
him
on
random
cases?
You
can
already
expect
Mammootty
to
be
playing
a
down-and-out
bum,
whose
sharp
eye
is
matched
by
his
clumsy
lifestyle
and
untidy
apartment.
Dominic
makes
a
living
blackmailing
unfaithful
husbands
with
‘private’
images
that
might
damage
their
marriages.
He
has
no
qualms
about
his
way
of
life.
He
embraces
being
the
mentor
figure
to
the
wide-eyed
understudy
Vignesh
(Gokul
Suresh),
who
is
constantly
in
awe
of
Dominic’s
powers
of
deduction.
There
are
no
qualms
about
making
the
hero
a
less-than-noble
slacker
from
the
very
onset.
He
has
a
condescending
ex-wife
who
is
living
a
happy
life
with
her
new
industrialist
husband,
he
never
pays
his
rent
and
feeds
off
of
his
landlord
Madhuri
(Viji
Venkatesh),
who
is
awaiting
the
return
of
her
estranged
son.
This
detail
is
important
as
the
procedural
aspect
of
the
movie
falls
into
place
through
this
very
story
beat.
But
his
impersonal
and
sloppy
blackmail
routine
is
upended
when
his
house
owner
hands
him
a
random
lady’s
purse
that
she
discovers
in
a
hospital.
The
duty
to
find
the
owner
of
the
purse
is
handed
over
to
Dominic
with
a
great
offer
—
foregoing
his
outstanding
rent
if
he
traces
the
owner
of
the
purse.
The
film
is
laidback
and
fidgety
in
the
first
half,
with
Gautham
Menon’s
handheld
adjacent
loose
aesthetics
complementing
the
tone.
You
never
get
the
basic
shot,
reverse
shot
staging,
but
more
of
the
freewheeling
dynamism
of
Gautham’s
recent
output,
where
the
camera
seems
to
be
on
a
constant
prowl
for
the
moments
that
transpire
between
characters.
This
approach
has
a
visceral
impact
and
keeps
you
on
your
feet
as
you
never
know
how
the
cross-cutting
and
constantly
moving
camera
is
going
to
settle
on
an
unfamiliar
detail
or
event.
Dominic
and
The
Ladies
Purse
makes
use
of
some
quirky
referential
jokes
about
some
of
the
tropes
of
age-old
crime
procedurals
of
ilk.
There
is
a
scene
involving
the
characters
deciphering
the
password
of
a
protected
memory
card
that
gets
at
the
absurd
quality
of
onscreen
representations
of
crime
investigations.
There
is
a
cozy
quality
to
the
way
Mammootty
plays
the
outspoken
‘Benoit
Blanc’,
who
at
one
point
tells
a
character
about
his
investigation
being
a
‘low
budget’
effort.
There
are
interesting
pieces
of
information
revealed
throughout
the
film,
sprinkled
with
unconventional
montage
sequences
that
ironically
undercut
the
impact
of
the
end
revelation.
Gautham
Menon
and
screenwriters
Neeraj
Rajan
and
Sooraj
Rajan
build
up
a
run-of-the-mill
whodunnit
setup
that
is
built
up
to
a
rushed,
abrupt
ending.
A
couple
of
missed
cases
converge
and
the
mystery
piles
up
forcing
the
reluctant
detective
to
look
into
probable
leads
and
connections.
A
sister
grieving
for
her
long-missing
brother
and
a
mother
awaiting
her
son
become
players
in
the
pulpy
plot.
Nanditha
(Sushmitha
Bhatt)
enters
the
investigation
and
knocks
Dominic
off
his
feet
with
her
charm.
Vineeth
gets
thrown
into
the
mix
of
side
players
and
major
revelations.
Mammootty
is
effortlessly
charming
playing
the
smart
detective.
The
unfamiliarity
of
the
director
with
the
language
is
clear
in
the
way
some
of
the
supporting
characters
render
their
lines
and
you
can
sense
the
disconnect
in
the
way
certain
interactions
go
about.
The
unique
;case’
at
the
centre
of
the
film
is
stretched
and
you
sense
the
over-plotting
and
jarring
edits,
coupled
with
a
half-baked,
abrupt
‘twist’.
Dominic
And
The
Ladies
Purse
ends
up
being
a
fascinating
story
idea
that
gets
partially
lost
in
translation
on
screen,
saved
by
the
presence
of
Mammootty.
We
will
have
to
wait
for
the
next
Mammootty-GVM
collaboration
for
the
magic
we
were
promised.
Dominic
And
The
Ladies
Purse
Review
Rediff
Rating:
