Is Mammootty doing too much work? At this stage of his illustrious career shouldn’t he concentrate on quality films like Kaathal The Core and Kalamkaval, rather than this vapid whodunit which serves no purpose other than to flatter the detective in Mammootty. The actor has played a cop one too many times. Sleuth must have sounded smooth on paper.
Mammootty plays Dominic, a disgraced cop now a self-appointed detective, with a languid approach to life and death and with an assistant Vicky (Gokul Suresh) who doesn’t seem very smart. Dominic hires him as Vicky is from a prosperous family and wouldn’t ask for much pay.
Dotted with multiple irrelevant characters trying to look useful and trying desperately to appear cool when there is nothing even remotely cool about this investigative inanity, this is a film waiting to know its relevance.
While Dominic is at best an amateur detective, the amateurishness seeps into the veins of this vain and vacuous case of the vanishing purse, where the lady with the purse who also vanishes. The “investigation”, if we may call it that, leads Dominic to a very mysterious woman named Nandhita (Sushmitha Bhat) who isn’t what she seems to be.
The complete blindness to gender-correction sensitivity is one of the many problems that plague the narrative. It isn’t as if the original plot lacked any merit. Director Gautham Vasudev Menon, no stranger to the movie making business, reduces the potential of the plot considerably in his attempt to make Mammootty seem as common as possible.
This doesn’t really work. To downsize a legendary star for the sake of directorial dispassion is like clipping an eagle’s wing.
The magical Mammootty for once seems ill at ease and incomplete. The supporting cast too is of no help. Their brief seems to be to just pretend they are not awed by the ‘M’ in their midst.
Turgid and tasteless like a dish which lacks all spice, Dominic And The Ladies Purse does disservice to its star presence. The next time Gautam Menon wants to work with a legendary actor, get a better plot. And make it more fun than this mealy mouthed, muddle mystery where the missing purse is a non-issue. What about the missing zing?
