Parimala and Co dropped on 5 June 2026, and I was expecting a fun, messy family thriller. On paper, it has everything: Pandiraaj writing and directing, a stacked cast with Jayaram, Urvashi, Mysskin, Yogi Babu, Sandy, Santosh Sobhan, Sanjana Krishnamoorthy, and Ananthika Sanilkumar, plus solid crew names like George C. Williams on camera and Pradeep E. Ragav on the edit. Lyca Productions, Tamil Kumaran Entertainment, and Pasanga Productions backed it. So yeah, the pedigree is there.
The story kicks off with this chaotic family that suddenly finds itself in the middle of a murder case. The hook is that they’re the prime suspects, and the film tries to play it as a black comedy. You get the innocence of a family that has no clue how to deal with cops, plus their own weird, funny ways of handling pressure. When it works, it really works.
Some of the one-liners from Jayaram and Urvashi are gold. Mysskin is clearly having the time of his life as this shady, over-the-top inspector every time he’s on screen, you perk up. Sanjana Krishnamoorthy also deserves a shoutout. Her comic timing is sharp, and she brings a freshness that the film badly needed.
But here’s the thing. For all that talent, the film feels lazy. The writing never digs deeper than “dysfunctional family in trouble.” We don’t really get to know these people. Their relationships stay at the surface, and after a point you stop caring whodunit because the mystery itself is built in such a flat way. The screenplay keeps going in circles. You can feel it dragging, throwing in random references and side gags just to buy time. And sadly, you can guess the big twists way before they land.
What bothered me most was the humor that didn’t need to be there. We’re in 2026, and yet we still get body-shaming jokes aimed at Yogi Babu. There are a few misogynistic bits too that left a bad taste. It’s not as bad as some other recent films, but it’s enough to pull you out of the movie and wonder why Pandiraaj went there.
That’s the real heartbreak. With Jayaram and Urvashi, you expect magic. Instead, they’re stuck doing this old-school, loud style that doesn’t really fit anymore. They get moments, sure, but it feels like a waste. Yogi Babu, Singampuli, Bucks, even Sandy all of them are underused. Ananthika tries hard, but her character is written so naively that you don’t end up rooting for her.
And the ending. Man, the last 15 minutes switch into this PSA about drug abuse that feels completely bolted on. It doesn’t earn the emotion, it just lectures. I walked away to a straight vodka shot to shake it off.
So, is it unwatchable? No. If you’re with family and you just want to switch your brain off for a couple hours, you’ll laugh. Pandiraaj does end with a decent message, and the cast gives it their all. But you can’t help feeling this should have been so much better.
Parimala and Co is like that day when everything goes wrong for the Parimala family, and for the film itself. You see the potential, but you also see it slip away.
ENDS
By
Sam Trailerman
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