Premise:Sandy is a drug peddler, a rogue who constantly troubles Ananthika to marry him. He gets killed one night and there are plenty of suspicions about the crime as to who actually committed the murder. Mysskin’s investigation and Jayaram going all-in to save his family from the case form the crux of the story.

Writing/ Direction:  Pandiraaj is a self-aware filmmaker, the film starts in the Papanasam zone of the abuser dying and an innocent family being the prime suspects. However the actual happenings are hidden, the director makes sure to refer to the film to make it lively. There are a truckload of characters, in fact every scene welcomes someone new to the storyworld like a TV serial, most of their roles are not memorable as their purposes are not strongly penned, at least the flow doesn’t provide any time for the situations to evolve. Atrociously hurried storytelling, the screenplay is random but at least something or the other is going on, but very hard to consume due to the implementation of non-stop jump cuts. Too clumsy for no reason, purposeful diversions spoil the thrilling factor. First of all, there is no tension as to whether anything wrong would happen to the innocent family or curiosity surrounding the murderer. Every following situation is so distant and incoherent from the previous one, we easily tend to lose interest due to the same issue. Sandy is presented as a ghost after a point, dumb idea executed in an even dumber manner. Urvashi’s silly humour is the only entertaining factor in the movie, anything else they have tried otherwise are only failed attempts in the name of comedy. The final act with Mysskin on the centre stage works as a separate chapter, and feels too odd from the actual film. There are many evident places where the writer has struggled with how to proceed things forward, especially in the second half.

Performances: Out of all, Urvashi’s quirky performance and timing dialogues add momentum to the film at regular intervals. Sanjana does well as a brave girl who voices out without any second thoughts. Mysskin gets a prominent role which gets showcased to the fullest towards the end, especially his innocence is on-point. Jayaram in his usual effortless zone, but no big positive impact to the flow. Sandy is super irritating, probably that was the intention, either way his role was very weak. Singampuli and Bagavathi Perumal in dummy roles, who are just on the suspects list. Yogi Babu’s jokes fall flat, failing to offer laughs despite having good enough screentime.

Technicalities: No scope for background score, mainly because of the hurried storytelling style. The songs are not impressive either. George C. Williams’ cinematography is decent, good separation in colours for both day and night shots. Poor editing from Pradeep E. Raghav, full of jump cuts with zero stay for any moment and such a style of narrative is so bothersome throughout.

Verdict: Starts as a potentially promising crime comedy, but the terrible flow of events neither makes it an engaging dark humour flick nor a worthy whodunit thriller. Probably, the weakest flick from the proven filmmaker Pandiraaj.

PARIMALA & CO - A light-hearted thriller with a clueless screenwriting.

Rating - 1.75/ 5.