My Boss

Jeethu Joseph's 2012 Malayalam film follows a software engineer working in Mumbai. He wants to move abroad and needs his manager's approval, and his manager is a hard-edged woman named Priya. The tension between them soon turns in another direction. The film uses the known template of office-set romantic comedy. Dileep's comic timing and Mamta Mohandas opposite him carry it. The everyday texture of the IT sector counted as a new setting in Malayalam cinema at the time. The script's problem is that the woman manager's severity is presented not as a character trait but as a problem to be solved. As the film proceeds that manner is softened and it returns to the classic romantic mould. Who it's for: those who like light Malayalam romantic comedy. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a contemporary view on gender; the film handles the woman executive within the template of its time.