Briefly Reviewed – Ramkumar Balakrishnan’s ‘Parking’

I didn’t mind this movie, but given the raves I have heard, it did not grab me that much. The 45-minute set-up was too long, too broad, too generic. The climax was way overboard. I kept thinking that had the same Ayyappanum Koshiyum-type premise been handled in Malayalam, we’d have gotten a subtler, more internal movie than something this… loud and external. I don’t want “subtle” and “internal” all the time, but apart from “they have an ego”, there is almost nothing else to the lead characters played by Harish Kalyan and MS Baskar. Apart from “they try to placate their husbands,” there is almost nothing else to the wives played by Indhuja and Rama. 

But the mid-section had its moments. It was solid — and I liked that the director had treated it like a thriller with two deranged men. The genre shift (with the menacing music) worked for me. I liked MS Baskar’s performance and even better, the one by the actor who played his daughter. She was really very good. Given the premise, given the moments that keep you hooked, this is one of those films you wish had been written and directed better — but the beginning and the ending drag it down. A director I met yesterday said he’d give it about three stars. If I were the star-giving type, that sounds about right.