Bro Daddy

If you were in that confused space before the release of Bro Daddy seeing the contradiction between the claims made by Prithviraj about the humor in the movie and the absence of genuine comedy in the promo content of the film, I would say you won’t feel disappointed after finishing this comedy entertainer. With color-rich frames and fun moments popping up at almost regular intervals of time, Bro Daddy, the second directorial of Prithviraj Sukumaran, is an enjoyable comedy that never tests your patience.

The film is centered on the father-son duo John Kattadi and Esho John Kattadi, the Bro and the Daddy. John owns a TMT steel bar company, and Esho is a rising star in the field of advertisement. Since John got married to Anna at a really young age, the age gap between Johan and Esho is really small, and the dynamic is also very vibrant. John’s friend Kurian has an advertising firm, and he has a daughter named Anna. What we see in the movie Bro Daddy is a crazy turn of events after the families thought about the marriage of Esho and Anna.

In totality, Bro Daddy works. And the main reason for that, in my opinion, is the first half of the movie, which is frequently funny. Once the confusions and chaos start to stack up, the film succeeds in building a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. The script was smart and witty in those portions in maintaining the curiosity and fun factor. The movie starts to decelerate considerably in the second half, where the drama starts to unfold. The movie’s tone completely shifts to a semi melodrama from a light-hearted comedy. And the predictability of the scenes becomes a problem when the mood is dramatic. But to save Prithviraj, Lalu Alex lifts the movie single-handedly in those areas.

From that huge aspect ratio, single tone, close-up visuals of Lucifer, director Prithviraj opts for that totally different visual aesthetic for Bro Daddy. Abhinandan Ramanujam’s frames are color-rich. The lighting is largely on the flatter side. It works for the movie to maintain the ambiance. The “wait, I can explain” script trait is fun when your narrative is in that humorous space. In fact, in Bro Daddy, they have broken that cliché at one point towards the interval. But towards the climax, they use that strategy again in a more serious area, and I felt it pointlessly dragged the movie. The idea was to convolute things to make it look like a madcap comedy, but the clichéd trick, along with the predictability, doesn’t help the film in achieving that madness. You won’t need to see the credits to understand that the music is made by Deepak Dev, and since he isn’t making too many songs these days, it didn’t feel that repetitive.

Comedy is a genre in which we love seeing Mohanlal, and here the script gives him some good space to enjoy being the character of John Kattadi. His reactions are fine, and a large chunk of the credit for the success of the first half rests on his shoulder. Prithviraj Sukumaran has rarely impressed me in these completely humor-driven characters, and this time also, the exaggerated portrayal is evident in his performance. After the scene between Mohanlal and Mallika Sukumaran in the first half, there was a small moment between John and Eesho where I felt Prithviraj got the character’s pitch. But he goes back to his typical style after that.

Kalyani Priyadarshan as Anna got a meaty role and was fun to watch. Once again, Anne Amy’s dubbing helps the performance achieve that adorability. Meena and Kaniha play the stereotypical housewives with no opinion. Soubin Shahir was a bit too eccentric, and it was a side-track comedy they should have chopped off at the editing table. The surprise star of this movie for me was Lalu Alex. He was yet again playing the heroine’s dad. But that overly dramatic phase of this comedy managed to be engaging only because of the way he pulled off Kurian.

Bro Daddy is easy for the eyes and brain. After a point, the predictability and eccentricity in the tale drag the movie backward. But the film places itself as this stress-buster straightforward comedy that you won’t really bother much about the occasional creative laziness. The movie is 160 minutes long, yet it doesn’t feel like a tiring watch.