Language : Tamil
Director : Ramkumar Balakrishnan
Writers : Ramkumar Balakrishnan
Cast : Harish Kalyan, M.S. Bhaskar, Indhuja Ravichandran
Genre : Drama | Thriller
As evident from its promotional materials, Parking is yet another entrant into the male ego genre which seems to be finding a lot of takers since 2019, particularly post the huge successes of Driving License and Ayyappanum Koshiyum. Now, both those films spoke about the ego clash between two individuals who belonged to opposite ends of the social spectrum, and both had a serious conflict at its core that eventually opened up a can of worms. But in Parking, debutant writer-director Ramkumar Balakrishnan breaks these norms and picks a rather silly event as his inciting incident. It also places its two leads as middle-class family men, thus eliminating any undue advantage either of the parties could have. And, as a result, what ensues is a thoroughly gripping drama that travels through some seriously dark phases and moments.
Ramkumar has written a screenplay out of the famous idiom ‘Making a mountain out of a molehill’ and effectively delivers the thrills and tensions through his capable writing. The decision to push the narrative into a noir zone towards the end of the second act is what differentiates it from the rest of the films mentioned earlier in the review. Although you kind of predict the climax as soon as you see the pregnant wife and her equation with M.S Bhaskar, it still manages to plant a doubt in your mind on how things could pan out post-interval.
M.S Bhaskar puts in a psychotic performance and after a point, you just stop empathising with his character once he spirals into absolute lunacy. Brilliantly acted showing his gifted range as an actor. Harish Kalyan also does a decent job and this is his best since Pyaar Prema Kadhal in my opinion. He gets to showcase a multitude of emotions ranging from helplessness, anger, remorse and compassion and does his best to sell all of it very convincingly to the audience.
This is a superbly written film and Ramkumar deserves all the praise in the world for coming up with this kind of screenplay. Had the release timing of the film been better, it could have definitely made a lot of waves at the Box Office. But now with its OTT release, I wish it gets the recognition it deserves from the audience across the globe.
Verdict: 5/7 stars
Excellent.
