It’s fun time.
After the 2020 pandemic, life’s just looking up in the hospitality industry when narcotics cops weave in and out of a lusty wedding celebration in a luxury hotel. With slightly rakish policeman Sumair (Shahid Kapoor) all over the hotel to exchange a Rs 50-crore bag of cocaine with hotel owner and drug lord Sikandar Chaudhry (Ronit Roy) for the safe return of his son Atharva (Sartaaj Kakkar) who has been kidnapped.
Writer-director Ali Abbas Zafar (with co-writer Aditya Basu) remakes the 2011 French film Sleepless Night (which was remade in Tamil as Thoongaa Vanam with Kamal Haasan in 2015), juggling slick action and a pulsating background score with a father-son equation that runs its own course. Sumair’s the dad who promises son Atharva a holiday and leaves him largely alone in a swank five-star hotel room. The kid grumbles that going from Delhi to Gurugram is no holiday, being on his own all day is no fun and if his dad can’t spend even an hour with him, “No wonder mom chose Akash over you.” Sumair’s offhand most of the time until Athi is nabbed and the dad in him surfaces.
Tailing Sumair are two more narco cops, Aditi (Diana Penty) and her boss Sameer (Rajeev Khandelwal) who too move the bag of cocaine around. Ali Abbas uses the wedding sangeet, the astonished guests, startled staff, the bar, washrooms, games arcade, kitchen, even the storeroom to film well-executed, stylish action while Sumair uses his wits to reach Sikandar and save Atharva. Meanwhile, Hamid (Sanjay Kapoor), the bigger boss, has arrived to take the cocaine from Sikandar.
It’s pretty hilarious as much of the fights, featuring all of them, Sumair, Sikandar, Aditi, Sameer and assorted henchmen, go parallelly with the wedding revelry, Sikandar aghast at the damage to his hotel and his reputation as hotelier. There’s one sequence where the bride has just stylishly toasted her groom at a long table when chaos storms in. There’s another with Badshah regaling guests burning up the floor with ‘Bad Boy’ and ‘Survive, survive’ as Sumair battles it out with Sikandar and the baddies. In between all this is an unconvinced Atharva who wonders if his dad is there for him or for the bag of cocaine. And there looms the big question, who’s the real bent cop? Who’s gone rogue?
Sumair beating goons to a pulp to save his son, him turning out to be the dad who really cares, Atharva having a change of heart and opting to be with dad, are everyday destinations.
It’s the fun route of action in a glitzy hotel against the backdrop of a merrymaking marriage that’s pure entertainment.
Shahid Kapoor, always so good at being slightly off-centre and naughty, is in super shape as Sumair. Ronit Roy is the top of the pick for his menace tinged with the comic. And Sartaaj Kakkar is cute as a button.
Watchable even if predictable.
Watch the trailer of Bloody Daddy:
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