Parking review: Harish Kalyan and MS Baskar's 'car war' is fine cinema

Filmmaking is not just about grand sets, glossy visuals, and big stars although most filmmakers in Tamil follow this formula to lure the audiences to theaters. In his maiden venture Parking, debutant director Ramkumar Balakrishnan has followed the textbook formulae of Malayalam classics.

Yes, it's good to see a Tamil filmmaker fully explore the characterisation of all actors, develop a strong conflict around them, and pass on the tension to the audiences.

Ilamparuthi (MS Baskar) is an upright executive officer in Kundrathur Municipality. He has a modest middle-class family comprising his wife Selvi (Rama Rajendra), and daughter Aparna (Prathana Nathan). Their rented house doesn't have any fancy electronic devices. Ilamparuthi prefers to repair all the faulty machines himself and cannot be convinced to buy a new mixer grinder for his wife. Or a new music system for himself.

Now, the first floor of the rented house gets a new family— the young IT professional husband Eswar (Harish Kalyan), and his pregnant wife Athika (Indhuja). Young 'IT couple' has trendy electronic devices at home and enjoys a lavish lifestyle. Things go well with Ilamparuthi and Eswar's families until the latter buys a car.

Then comes the car

Eswar books a new car and trouble arises as the tiny parking space must be now shared with Ilamparuthi, who owns a bike. Initially, There's a clash of egos as the bike scratches the car. It drives Ilamparuthi to buy a new car and the war on parking space gets uglier. The rest of the film is all about how sharing a parking space can affect lives. Something most of us have faced at some of time.

Director Ram Kumar has focused the first half of the film on establishing the striking differences between the two main characters, their ego tussle, and how the women in their respective families are affected. The second half is a full-blown war between the two men.

MS Baskar is certainly one of the finest actors in Tamil but sadly only a few directors have provided him with strong characters (8 Thottakkal, Uttama Villain and Mozhi). In Parking, he gets his career-best character. Initially, his Ilamparuthi comes across as an upright officer without any flaws but slowly, the grey shades give him a convincing makeover. Similarly, the young and handsome Harish Kalyan has delivered his best performance till date. His Eswar also gets a negative shade towards the climax, which is quite interesting because not many young actors dare tread into moral grey zones.

The other prominent actors like Indhuja, Rama, and Prathana have also done their parts well.

As said earlier, the story mostly unwinds inside a small house and a few outdoor locations but cinematographer Jiju Sunny has avoided repetitive shots and made the visuals refreshing within the limited space. Music by Sam CS is strictly functional and he seems to be following his template background score even for this novel attempt. Editor Philomin Raj needs to be praised for keeping audiences engaged in a simple tale of two families and their differences.

Parking is easily one of the best Tamil films of this year. Kudos to debutant Ramkumar Balasubramaniam for delivering a thoroughly engaging film within a tight budget and compact storyline.