Parking (2023 film)

Parking is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language thriller-drama film written and directed by Ramkumar Balakrishnan in his directorial debut. The film is produced by Sudhan Sundaram and K. S. Sinish under Passion Studios and Soldiers Factory and stars Harish Kalyan, M. S. Bhaskar and Indhuja Ravichandran in the lead roles. The film follows Eshwar, a young IT-employee, and his newly wed pregnant wife Aadhika's conflicts about parking after recently moving to a new house.

Parking was theatrically released on 1 December 2023 to positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success.

Plot
Eshwar, an Information Technology (IT) professional, and his pregnant wife, Aathika, rent the first floor of a house. Ilamparuthi, the Executive Officer (EO) of Kundrathur Town Panchayat, lives in the ground floor with his wife, Selvi, and daughter, Aparna. Ilamparuthi is an old-fashioned and stingy man, out of touch with modern society and neglecting the desires of his wife and daughter, in contrast to Eshwar, who does everything for Aathika. Despite these differences, the two families initially get along well until Eshwar buys a new car for his wife to travel in comfortably. Ilamparuthi, who has lived in the house for the last ten years and has kept the entire parking space to himself since he and the previous first floor tenants never owned a car, is not comfortable with Eshwar's car parked in the parking space. After a couple of incidents, both begin to fight for rights over the parking space. Ilamparuthi sells his motorbike and buys a car just to ensure that Eshwar does not park his car in the parking space.

A cat-and-mouse game begins between Eshwar and Ilamparuthi over the parking space, which culminates with Ilamparuthi breaking Eshwar's car window when the latter manages to park his car ahead of him. They quarrel in full public view, which turns ugly when Ilamaparuthi insults Eshwar's mother, causing Eshwar to slap him in anger. Seeking revenge for the slap, Ilamparuthi and his brother-in-law force Aparna to file a false case of harassment against Eshwar. Eshwar is arrested, but Aparna, feeling guilty for what she did, withdraws the complaint and Eshwar is released. Eshwar, in retribution, then frames Ilamparuthi for accepting a bribe of ₹30,000, leading to his suspension. Despite Aathika pleading with Eshwar, and also at the same time Selvi and Aparna begging Ilamparuthi, not to escalate their quarrel, the duo refuse to budge. Ilamparuthi goes to the extent of loosening Eshwar's front tyre, which leads to a near-accident when Eshwar is taking Aathika to hospital for her regular checkup.

Enraged at this attempt to kill him and his wife, even though she is pregnant, Eshwar wrecks Ilamparuthi's car. Selvi and Aparna leave home, fed up of Ilamparuthi's behaviour towards Eshwar. Eshwar, on Aathika's insistence, decides to move out. He manages to find another home and then meets with Ilamparuthi to inform him of the same and make peace with him. But instead, Ilamparuthi knocks him out in rage. At this juncture, he finds out that Aathika has gone into labour and manages to drive her to the hospital, where she gives birth. Meanwhile, Eshwar regains consciousness and brutally attacks Ilamparuthi, who has returned home, refusing to listen when he tries to inform him about his wife's delivery.

After knocking him out, he goes to the extent of heating Ilamparuthi's mobile phone in a microwave oven and orchestrating a gas leak with the intention of killing him, but when he eventually finds out that Ilamparuthi had helped Aathika in her time of need, despite their personal enmity, he gets horrified for his attempt to kill him and switches off the main power supply for the house, averting a major disaster. Eshwar and Ilamparuthi apologise to each other for what had happened and both feel they could have adjusted and handled the parking issue in a matured manner. The story ends with both the families moving out of the house, and the owner of the house searching for prospective tenants for both floors under the condition that they do not own a car.

Production
The film project was announced by debutant director Ramkumar Balakrishnan who previously worked as an assistant director to K. S. Sinish in the film Balloon. The film was entirely shot in Chennai. The announcement regarding the film title was unveiled by the lead actor Harish Kalyan in June 2023 who shared the news in social media with a title look poster.

As part of the film promotion, both Harish and Indhuja Ravichandran entered the Bigg Boss House as guests during the ongoing season 7.

Music
The music for the film was composed by Sam C. S.

Theatrical
Parking was theatrically released on 1 December 2023.

Home media
The Digital Rights of this film were acquired by Disney+ Hotstar while the satellite rights of the film were sold to Star Vijay. The film is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ Hotstar from 30 December 2023.

Critical response
M. Suganth of The Times of India gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "Even though Parking is in the space of a domestic drama, Ramkumar Balakrishnan narrates it in the tone of a thriller, ratcheting up the thrills."

In a positive review, Gopinath Rajendran of The Hindu said "Harish Kalyan’s Parking might get predictable after a while, but the exceptional lead cast and an intriguing plot make it a winner."

Raisa Nasreen of Times Now gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Harish Kalyan Excels In Thriller Drama."

Remake
Parking is set to be remade in four Indian languages and a foreign language.