Bloody Daddy Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
Is there anything more mid than a movie trailer unsure of itself? Dikhataa hua joh 300 baar dekh chuke hain, not a whiff of freshness.
Is there anything more satisfying than watching the actual movie be much MUCH better than the trailer?
Hey y’all, my name is Sucharita, aaj baat kar rahe hain about Ali Abbas Zafar’s Hindi adaptation of the French film Nuit Blanche, Bloody Daddy, now streaming for free on Jio Cinema.
In an attempt to hide ALL plot points from the audience, Bloody Daddy ka trailer intentionally misleading hone ki jagah, kaafi basic reh gaya, promising nothing more than stylized action sequences. Meri koshish abhi rahegi ki na bataaoon trailer se zyada kuch aur abhi aapko, par potential mild spoilers ahead, consider this a heads up.
Second wave ke baad 2021, November mein kahaani set hai. Shahid Kapoor is a cop in the Narcotics department. He has gone dirty and gangsters ke saath drugs ka dhandha karta hai on the side. One day one cocaine delivery he’s supposed to do goes wrong, and everything changes in one night.
Similar to Anurag Kashyap ki Kennedy, Bloody Daddy bhi comment kar rahi hai police waalo ke morals, in the wake of the pandemic, jab corruption karna zyada aasaan ho gaya tha for anyone with any amount of power. It’s such a fun playground to make all kinds of social and political comments, while punching up, having fun at the expense of an all-powerful establishment.
And fun is being had. Ali Abbas Zafar ke saath writer Aditya Basu and duo Siddharth-Garima leans into the one-night cop drama, almost escape room genre of it all. There are many throwaways, actually funny one-liners, my favorite being an exchange between a hotel owner/drug lord and a teenager about lactose-free milk, and as the child is being taken away someone says “bina doodh ka doodh”, quick snappy jokes to break the tension, some very cool hand to hand action sequences, loud but not overpowering background music by Julius Packiam, Marcin Laskawiec’s camera, everything works together in pretty good harmony to delivery a tight, neatly packaged fast, and mega enjoyable, even funny, crime story.
Shahid Kapoor is the titular daddy, in various stages of being bloody. I didn’t understand the need for him to change from a leather jacket to a tuxedo halfway through the film, but the scene where he carries out the outfit change is so so fun. A fine, talented performer, even when he gives into vanity, Shahid Kapoor is consistently good in the film. For such a loud character, his realization of corrupt cop Sumair is restrained, considering the over-the-top palette of the film. Tuxedo pehen-ne ka reason chahe na samajh mein aaye, par tuxedo mein action karte huye the man looks incredible. French naam Sleepless Night, Tamil remake ka naam Sleepless Forest, Hindi waali ka naam Bloody Daddy kyunki A. we’re establishing Shahid Kapoor as “daddy”, B. Star power ke dam par production mein gayi hogi film I imagine.
Ronit Roy and Rajeev Khandelwal are just as delightful haan lekin. Such a joy to watch Ronit Roy say “Sikander ki spelling C se shuru nahi hoti”, the character aware his whole vibe is a little too dramatic. He takes a moment to steam iron his jacket before calling his henchmen to check plan mein gadbad kya hui hai, and as outlandish as this sounds, between ali abbas zafar and ronit roy, it just works, playing the absurdity for laughs. When he says to a child “main bura aadmi nahi hoon, business hai mera cocaine ka”, with all sincerity,
And Rajeev Khandelwal haan going toe to toe with Shahid in a pretty awesome, music-less combat sequence is the stuff of my dreams, its like he’s inhabiting Bejoy Nambiar’s Shaitan universe still, in the best most satisfying way possible. Also, the man has excellent comic timing, please cast him in more stuff.
I also enjoyed picking up on the movie’s subtle but strong cultural commentary. Party guests dancing to go-corona-go at a 7-star hotel, kyunki for the rich the misery of the masses is but a mere morbid amusement, Sikander saying he used to be a butcher before he got into drugs, immediately followed by a cop trying to kill another cop with a meat cleaver, asking asli criminal kaun.
Bloody Daddy works primarily because it’s having fun with the screenplay. Complications upon complications keep piling on, as about 5 sub-plots unfold simultaneously, deepening the canon, and enriching the universe. Yes saara kaaryakram unfolds in one night, and a lot is going on, yet it doesn’t get stuffy, doesn’t fold up over on itself……until it does.
Achi khaasi desi John Wick zone mein jaati hui film mein joh cliché hospital ke shots daale gaye hain aakhir mein, are tonally so jarring, it felt like a different movie started playing. A song in the background talks of “udte khwabon mein” kya kya ho jaata hai, achhi khaasi edginess round off hokar becomes Rajshri coded. Second half ke writing loopholes bhi ignore karne ko ready thi main, Diana Penty ko action nahi karne diya theek se, that also was forgiven, I just really wish id exited the film with the same emotional high it had provided just a few sequences prior.
Nonetheless, the film is streaming on Jio Cinema and is a pretty great weekend watch, go check it out.
