
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.
Sherlock Holmes gets a nod or two, and while Holmes is often depicted as a misanthrope, Dominic’s shades of gray (that poetically ties in with his disorder) are explored differently. The film avoids and discourages easy judgments. Is Dominic a corrupt cop? Perhaps. A bad husband? Maybe. He takes cases with quid-pro-quo arrangements, not because he’s addicted to solving puzzles like Sherlock is, but for reasons uniquely his own, reasons that are far more relatable.
These ambiguities allow us to see Dominic as a complex, multifaceted character, a man who’s not too different from us. Where we see Sherlock as a man we can never be, Dominic doesn’t feel so unattainable. All we need in his own words is, “Observation and concentration”.
The film, in a beautiful way, trusts you with observation and concentration. It’s constantly asking you if you are observing and concentrating. That’s perhaps why Gautham Menon doesn’t let the film interpret events and emotions for you. For instance, when Dominic watches Nanditha’s Bharatanatyam performance, almost rebuking himself for feeling drawn to her, that’s all we get.
There’s no follow-up scene of Vignesh (Gokul Suresh) probing this further. He has already thrown a glance in a car, a moment that lasts a second or two, and that’s enough, the film says. Or take the funny idea of Dominic blackmailing a bank manager. At the outset, you think it’s just for laughs. But it reveals Dominic to us. He can manipulate, yes, but he isn’t necessarily harming another.
On a script level, this is also a great solution to the how-will-a-civilian-gain-access-to-such-details problem. Later on, when Dominic is bloodied and in physical agony, the film isn’t asking you to suffer with him. Instead, there’s a joke about a fake gun and you laugh. The risk with such restraint, of course, is that the film or its protagonist might come across as impassive or cold. However, Mammootty’s nuanced performance, layered with dry humour, ensures this doesn’t happen.
His performance ensures that even the smallest moments are rife with detail. In a scene where his assistant Vignesh (Gokul Suresh) surprises Dominic with a useful question during an interrogation, Dominic’s reaction—neither warm nor admiring, just neutrally surprised—creates subtle humour. These fleeting touches are scattered throughout the film.
A bigger, more obvious standout moment comes toward the end, when Dominic, fighting for survival, stares at his aggressor with glazed eyes—which communicate all the subtext, all the emotional confusion that he perhaps hasn’t even processed internally. This is perhaps the film’s best portion, as music and editing combine to present a picture of affecting dichotomy.
This gets followed by a swift emotional montage, and here, I wondered if perhaps there might have been more value in lingering on the adversary a bit more? Perhaps that way, there might have been a chance for more emotional resonance around the character, as opposed to a broad, plot-benefitting understanding of what went on.
Darbuka Siva’s score occasionally feels overly energetic for the film’s grounded, realistic tone. During a crime scene investigation, for instance, the music—guitars and thumping beats joining the party—feels a curious fit. However, he more than makes up for it in that final flourish—an intercut sequence—with an emotional score that offers the kind of joy you can only truly get in the cinematic medium. Gautham Menon, for this moment, draws from an older, what we thought to be innocuous, visual.
This is one of many scenes in this film where you are invited to revisit and review feelings over something shown earlier. For instance, a policeman makes a stray comment that makes him seem rather perverted, but you process it in a wholly new light later on. A subplot about a loan, which feels like an excuse to stage a hero moment, adds valuable texture when you reconsider it. Even minor details, like Nandhitha speaking about her brother’s debts, echo much longer after the duration of the film.
Above all, Gautham Menon’s film stays true to Dominic’s character. Why does he take on the case of the ladies’ purse? Why does he hire Vignesh? Why does he stay at Nanditha’s house? The answer is consistent: Dominic is selfish, and the film embraces this. You see, this stubborn man won’t take no for an answer. It’s this quality that has him, like a blood-hound on a scent, tracking the trail of a purse, no matter where it leads him to. It doesn’t matter that his own life might be at stake.
So, yes, I enjoyed that this restrained origins film remains focused and unembellished, content with telling Dominic’s first chapter without the distraction of unnecessary flourishes. The film also cleverly leaves many details of his life open. What’s the nature of his relationship with his wife? Will Vignesh move on? Will the houseowner ever find what she’s looking for? If Dominic handles further cases—and I hope he does—there are many intriguing questions waiting to be answered.
Film: Dominic and the Ladies’ Purse
Director: Gautham Vasudev Menon
Cast: Mammootty, Gokul Suresh, Sushmitha Bhatt, Viji Venkatesh
Rating : 3.5/5