A Gray Detective Gets His Start in This Colourful Origins Film

T ONE point in Dominic and the Ladies’ Purse, a classic Gautham Menon-esque heroine enters the world of Dominic. She’s cultured, Bharatanatyam, fluent in Tamil and Malayalam and English too. Dominic, a middle-aged single man, seems rather reserved, and if you have seen Gautham Menon’s Ai: Arindhaal, you won’t find this unfamiliar territory for the filmmaker. Even if initially, this seems like an indulgent digression from the case Dominic is working on, when a revelation is presented, everything changes.

- SUDHIR SRINIVASAN

Perhaps the earliest sign that this isn’t a film keen to populate its world with characters and relationships as cursory acquaintances. In this world, every single person, every human being, exists and is seen. Even a random person bumping into Dominic’s investigation, gets revisited, like an angle that’s substantial, like the core organizational subplot: it’s a red herring perhaps, a way for the film to delay the reveal of the real culprit. Yet, it adds to something transcendent, humanizing one character while driving another forward. It’s a film filled with subtle, beautiful moments.

Holmes gets a nod here, while Holmes is often described as a misanthrope, Dominic’s shades of gray (that are explored differently) avoid judgments and discouragement. Is Dominic a good cop? Perhaps. A bad cop? Maybe. He takes cases on a quid-pro-quo arrangement because he’s addicted to solving puzzles like Sherlock Holmes, but for reasons of his own, reasons that are relatable. These complexities allow us to see Dominic as complex, multifaceted character, a man who’s not that different from us. Where we might look at him as a man we can relate to, Dominic doesn’t feel so unattainable. All we need in his own words is, “Observation and concentration”.