Gautham Vasudev Menon’s ‘Dominic and the Ladies’ Purse’, with Mammootty, is a breezy throwback to a certain kind of novelistic mystery

I didn’t know what to expect from the Gautham-Mammootty combination. But they’ve given us a movie where the characterisation of the protagonist is so good that the rest of it goes down easily, even the minor flaws. The rest of this review contains spoilers.

By this time, we don’t need to say what a good actor Mammootty is; it’s a bit like saying Federer is a good tennis player. But Mammootty makes us say it all over again, and again, in Gautham Vasudev Menon’s quirkily titled Dominic and the Ladies’ Purse. As a two-bit detective named Dominic, Mammootty goes the gamut from dry humour to serious drama. It’s such an “invisible” performance that it hardly seems to be a performance. One standout bit has him facing someone who asks him this question: “You are completely on the wrong track.” Gautham gives us a frame that’s somewhere between a mid-shot and a close-up, and we see Dominic’s mind working. Mammootty says nothing, but his face says these words: “Maybe I am on the wrong track, because as I keep saying, 20% of my guesswork could be off. But somehow, this time, I don’t think I am on the wrong track.” His mind is putting it all together, and we actually see the process of thinking without a single facial movement.

You can read the rest of the review here:

https://www.galattaplus.com/gautham-vasudev-menons-dominic-and-the-ladies-purse-with-mammootty-is-a-breezy-throwback-to-a-certain-kind-of-novelistic-mystery/

You can watch the trailer / video review here:

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