If you look at the promos for the latest Tamil comedy from Pandiraaj, Parimala and Co, it gives that Mohiniyattam kind of vibe, where they’re taking a spin on Paapanasam, the Tamil remake of Drishyam. With Urvashi and Jayaram sharing crackling chemistry on screen, it felt like the movie would have enough dark humor to make us laugh out loud. But soon after the premise is established, Parimala and Co. start to have a very scattered nature, and they are struggling to develop the proceedings in an organic way. With the movie going towards the tone of a conventional revenge thriller rather than focusing on the dark humor, Parimala and Co eventually becomes an unremarkable film.
As the title suggests, the movie revolves around the family of Parimala. The family consists of a father, a mother, and two daughters. The youngest daughter, Madhumitha, was frequently stalked by a local goon named Varghese. His torture was so much that the family even considered killing him. Surprisingly, the family gets the news that Varghese was murdered, and what we see here are the events that the family had to deal with after that.
The lack of trust within the family is the element that was supposed to spark the humor in this twisted Drishyam. And in the initial moments of the film, that humor is there for us to enjoy. But once the murder happens and a police investigation begins, the script is not sure about what trajectory it should take. They are throwing in so many diversions and distractions, and it was too easy to identify those as unnecessary detours. There is a whole track that takes the family out of Tamil Nadu, and other than adding some pointless humor, that Palakkad trip wasn’t really contributing to the larger picture. As the story progressed, one could clearly see the makers extending irrelevant scenes a little too much to squeeze out the best from the lead pair.
Jayaram is playing the role of a Malayali from Palakkad settled in Tamil Nadu. And the style of humor he is trying here is something that we have seen him do a zillion times, and I must say it is still funny. His iconic “shavam” also makes a comeback with this role. Urvashi and humor are a deadly combination, and there are several areas where the tone with which she renders the dialogues would make us laugh out loud. While her performance is fun to watch, the characterization Pandiraaj has in mind is overdoing what this character would do. It almost reminded me of Madhuchandralekha, where her performance is fun, but the writing is making a mess of that character by pushing it too much. Mysskin as Inspector Emperuman delivered a fun performance that matched the meter they had set for the movie. Sanjana Krishnamoorthy, as the outspoken elder daughter, was impressive with her performance. Ananthika Sanilkumar, as Madhumitha, was able to carry the insensitivity associated with that character in a funny way. Sandy gets another version of Chocolate Coffee with longer dialogues in the form of Varghese. Yogi Babu, as the house owner, has many scenes with no major purpose.
As I mentioned in the beginning, the dark comedy energy of the movie is fading out after that initial burst. And the core idea of lack of trust within the family is getting stretched far too much. As the movie progresses, it becomes a very typical story of revenge. It almost felt like Pandiraaj was delivering payoffs without proper buildup, which made the twists look ordinary on screen. There is a song featuring a new character named Gomathi, and the way such new tracks were getting added was basically exposing the writer’s block the director faced. And also, the audience is intelligent enough to understand that no character is placed unnecessarily, and hence, when certain revelations happen, we won’t be surprised, as we were anticipating something. Even though some of the scenes have witty counters, one can see the movie lingering on irrelevant humor for far too long.
If we can call Blast the action version of Drishyam, Parimala and Co had the scope to be that dark humor version of Drishyam, something that Mohiniyattam managed to crack. Unfortunately, a scattered script that runs out of fresh ideas and resorts to a familiar template makes this Pandiraaj movie just another film with some scattered humor and wasted potential. It is the kind of movie that OTT platforms can tease the audience to watch the full movie by sharing funny snippets of scenes. There are scattered moments of laughter, but the final result is forgettable.
