Bloody Daddy, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, is a remake of the 2011 action thriller Sleepless Night that nearly pulls itself out of the slew of lackluster genre films to come out of the Hindi film industry but ends up succumbing to the same problem that plagues so many of them: the problematic execution of the second half.
The film begins right after the deadly second wave of COVID-19, where an NCB officer, Sumair Azad (Shahid Kapoor), and his partner, Jagga (Zeishan Quadri), pull off a drug heist in Delhi’s Connaught Place, stealing a bag of cocaine worth fifty crore rupees belonging to the owner of the seven-star hotel, Sikander (Ronit Roy). In retribution, Sikander abducts Atharva (Sartaaj Kakkar), Sumair’s son, and wants the drugs back in exchange for his release. Upon arriving at Sikander’s seven-star hotel, where the transaction is supposed to take place, Sumair hides the bag in the ventilator shaft of the men’s room. But, unbeknownst to him, for unknown reasons, he is followed by his colleague, Aditi (Diana Penty), who takes the bag and moves it to a different location. After negotiating with Sikander, when Sumair returns to acquire the bag, it’s gone, sending him into a frenzy where he must overcome numerous obstacles to save his son.
The film opens well, with the pandemic’s impact on the hotel sector being logically woven into the story and giving Sikander a good excuse for peddling drugs to recuperate his losses. There is a scene right after Sumair realizes that the cocaine bag has vanished, which freaks him out and rushes him inside the hotel kitchen, where he meets a couple of Nepali cooks who panic after seeing a police officer since they are behind on their rent. Sumair orders the kitchen staff to procure plastic bags, duct tape, and scissors, and then he begins hastily filling the bags with wheat flour to pass off as cocaine while Sikander is waiting for him with a client named Hameed (Sanjay Kapoor). The urgency and spontaneity demonstrated in the scene make it the funniest in the film. Then there’s also Sumair’s corrupt boss, Sameer (Rajeev Khandelwal), who, too, wants the bag and is willing to sacrifice Sumair and his son to obtain it, resulting in an impressively staged action scene between the two men.
Sumair is an irresponsible husband and absentee father of Atharva, a typical Gen Z youngster with a big mouth who prefers lactose-free milk and gluten-free bread. Shahid Kapoor plays Sumair, a crooked police officer forced to trade a bag of cocaine to rescue his child, with rugged masculinity and a cocky attitude. He is so greedy that even after he locates Atharva and tries to save his son from Sikander’s goons, he still wants to acquire the drugs. There are scenes in the film that show Sumair helping a cook pay for his rent and preventing a pervert from harassing a woman, meant to provide an empathetic arc to the character, which I am not sure was needed if only they had explored the father-son dynamic in detail. Their relationship’s evolution is unconvincing, lacks credibility, and fails to make any emotional impact, especially when it comes to working out their differences. Although the supporting cast offers nothing new due to their conventional characterization, the screen presence of Ronit Roy, Rajeev Khandelwal, and Sanjay Kapoor does the job and manages not to hamper the film.
The film suffers from a prolonged second half as the storyline lacks the same energy and continuity as the first one. While a few coincidences are employed to advance the plot, fortunately, they don’t appear contrived or blatant enough to draw attention to themselves. However, soon after the interval, Sikander and Atharva have a scene in which the latter requests lactose-free chocolate milk. A few minutes later, in another scene, this drink helps Sumair deduce the location of Atharva. Now, the screentime between these two moments is where the film loses steam. Overall, even though it has its moments, Bloody Daddy lacks the intensity and charm of the original.
You can stream Bloody Daddy on Jiocinema.
Bloody Daddy movie links: IMDB, Wikipedia
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