Parking (2023 film)

Film by Ramkumar Balakrishnan

Parking

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Ramkumar Balakrishnan
Written by| Ramkumar Balakrishnan
Produced by| Sudhan Sundaram
K. S. Sinish
Starring|

* Harish Kalyan
* M. S. Bhaskar
* Indhuja Ravichandran

Cinematography| Jiju Sunny
Edited by| Philomin Raj
Music by| Sam C. S.

Production
companies

Passion Studios
Soldiers Factory

Release date

* 1 December 2023 (2023-12-01)

Running time

| 130 minutes
Country| India
Language| Tamil

Parking is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language black comedy thriller film written and directed by Ramkumar Balakrishnan in his directorial debut. Produced by Passion Studios and Soldiers Factory, the film stars Harish Kalyan, M. S. Bhaskar and Indhuja Ravichandran. In the film, a newly married couple relocate to a new house, only to face escalating tensions with a neighbour over a parking.

Parking was theatrically released on 1 December 2023. The film received positive reviews from critics, although it's box office performance was affected by the effects of Cyclone Michaung. It won three National Film Awards: Best Tamil Feature Film, Best Supporting Actor (Bhaskar) and Best Screenplay (Ramkumar).

## Plot

[edit]

Eshwar, a 28-year old 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 man in contrast to Eshwar. 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 condescendingly. 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...

## Cast

[edit]

* Harish Kalyan as Eshwar
* M. S. Bhaskar as S. Ilamparuthi
* Indhuja Ravichandran as Aathika
* Prathana Nathan as Aparna
* Rama Rajendra as Selvi
* Ilavarasu as the house owner
* Vijay Sathya as the police inspector
* Kannayiram as Ganesan
* Vetrivel Raja as the house broker

## Production

[edit]

The film is the directorial debut of Ramkumar Balakrishnan who previously worked as an assistant director to K. S. Sinish in Balloon (2017).[1] 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.[2] M. S. Bhaskar was cast after the director was impressed with his performance in 8 Thottakkal.[3]

As part of the film promotion, Harish and actress Indhuja Ravichandran entered the Bigg Boss House as guests during the seventh season.[4]

## Music

[edit]

The music for the film was composed by Sam C. S.[5]

Parking

Soundtrack album by

Sam C. S.

Released| 2023
Genre| Feature film soundtrack
Length| 10:10
Language| Tamil
Label| Think Music
Sam C. S. chronology
| Phoenix
(2023)  | Parking
(2023)  | Siren
(2024)

|
|

| External audio

Parking – Jukebox on YouTube

Track listingNo.| Title| Lyrics| Singers| Length

|
|
|
|

1.| "Chella Kalliye"| Sam C. S.| Kapil Kapilan| 3:28
2.| "Neero"| Vishnu Edavan| Abhijith Rao| 2:40
3.| "Yevan Nallavan"| Sam C. S.| Sam C. S.| 2:22
4.| "Parking Theme" (Instrumental)| —| —| 1:40
Total length:| 10:10

## Release

[edit]

### Theatrical

[edit]

Parking was theatrically released on 1 December 2023.[6]

### Home media

[edit]

The film began streaming on JioHotstar from 30 December 2023.[7]

## Reception

[edit]

### Critical response

[edit]

Parking received positive reviews from critics.[8] 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."[9] 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."[10] Janani K of India Today wrote, "Parking is all about two exceptional performances from legendary MS Bhaskar and Harish Kalyan. Beyond them, the film hardly moves forward".[11]

### Box office

[edit]

According to a report by News18, Parking, made on a budget of ₹6 crore (US$710,000), grossed ₹17 crore (US$2.0 million).[12] Raisa Nasreen of Times Now noted that the film struggled at the Chennai box office due to the effects of Cyclone Michaung in early December.[13] Despite this, the director and producer of Parking donated ₹2 lakh (US$2,400) for relief efforts.[14]

## Accolades

[edit]

At the 71st National Film Awards, Parking won in three categories: Best Tamil Feature Film, Best Supporting Actor (Bhaskar) and Best Tamil Screenplay (Ramkumar).[15]

## Potential remakes

[edit]

In May 2024, it was reported that Parking was planned to be remade in Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and a non-Indian language.[16]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Harish Kalyan, Indhuja pair up for a thriller on parking issue". The Times of India. 23 June 2023. Archived from the original on 22 December 2023. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
2. ^ "Harish Kalyan's next is a thriller drama titled 'Parking'". The Hindu. 23 June 2023. Archived from the original on 22 December 2023. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
3. ^ Raman, Sruthi Ganapathy (6 January 2024). "We Looked At More Than 150 Houses To Find The House In Parking: Director Ramkumar". Film Companion. Archived from the original on 2 August 2025. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
4. ^ "Harish Kalyan and Indhuja Ravichandran enter Bigg Boss Tamil 7 house, promote Parking". OTTPlay. 28 November 2023. Archived from the original on 8 January 2024. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
5. ^ "Parking". JioSaavn. 27 October 2023. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
6. ^ "'Parking' to 'Annapoorani': Tamil movies that are releasing on December 1". The Times of India. 29 November 2023. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
7. ^ Manu, Hridyambika A (30 December 2023). "Parking out on OTT – Where to watch Harish Kalyan and MS Bhaskar's thriller drama". OTTPlay. Archived from the original on 25 July 2025. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
8. ^ "Parking on OTT — When will Harish Kalyan-MS Bhaskar's drama arrive on streaming?". OTTPlay. 27 December 2023. Archived from the original on 4 March 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
9. ^ Suganth, M (1 December 2023). "Parking Movie Review: Harish Kalyan and MS Bhaskar excel in a tensely staged drama on an everyday issue". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 24 April 2024. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
10. ^ Rajendran, Gopinath (30 November 2023). "'Parking' movie review: A fantastic MS Bhaskar shoulders a simple, efficient drama on ego clash". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
11. ^ K, Janani (29 November 2023). "Parking Review: Harish Kalyan, MS Bhaskar are egoistic men in this engaging film". India Today. Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
12. ^ "Missed Parking In Theatres? Catch This Harish Kalyan Dark Comedy On OTT". News18. 14 September 2024. Archived from the original on 2 August 2025. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
13. ^ "Parking OTT Release: When And Where You Can Watch MS Bhaskar, Harish Kalyan's Hit Film". Times Now. 1 January 2024. Archived from the original on 1 January 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
14. ^ Darshan, Navein (6 December 2023). "Parking director and producer donate to Chief Minister Relief Fund for Chennai floods". Cinema Express. Archived from the original on 4 October 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
15. ^ "71st National Film Awards for the year 2023 announced". Press Information Bureau. 1 August 2025. Archived from the original on 2 August 2025. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
16. ^ "Harish Kalyan's 'Parking' to be remade in 5 languages". The Times of India. 21 May 2024. Archived from the original on 23 May 2024. Retrieved 2 August 2025.

## External links

[edit]

* Parking at IMDb
* Parking at Rotten Tomatoes

*[No.]: Number