Bloody Daddy Review | This John Wickish Sleepless Night Is Not Great, but Fun

In comparison to Thoongaa Vanam, the other Indian remake of Sleepless Night, I would say the Shahid Kapoor starrer Bloody Daddy is very slick and peppy. And writer-director Ali Abbas Zafar blends his John Wick aspirations smoothly into the visual craft of the movie to deliver a film that isn’t necessarily great but definitely catchy.

Sumair Azad is this corrupt cop who plans to steal a drug mafia’s package with another cop. But Sikandar Chowdhary, who ran the drug business, learned about Sumair’s involvement in that incident. He kidnaps Sumair’s son Atharva and asks Sumair to return the package. Sumair decides to get his son back in the easy way possible, but things don’t go as he planned, and what we see in Bloody Daddy is that one night when Sumair had to deal with a lot.

Except for some inconsequential changes in the backdrop of certain events and characters, the movie very much follows the trajectory of Frédéric Jardin’s film. While Jardin had a more realistic approach in terms of the visual pattern and staging, Ali Abbas Zafar opted for a stylized version. Even though the colors and stuff in the visuals somewhat alienate the movie from being real, the dialogue and the agility in moving things quickly helped the film to hold our interest. Aditya Basu and writer duo Siddharth-Garima try to give some depth to the dynamic between the father and son through some sporadic moments in a movie that is always in action mode.

As the irresponsible father figure who kind of learns about his flaws over the course of these events, Shahid Kapoor manages to add some humaneness in a role that primarily demands swagger. The action hero’s body language of the actor is superb, and it significantly pushes the film. Ronit Roy shines as the antagonist Sikandar Chowdhary, and it is actually a good role considering the different shades we see of that character in the movie. Diana Penty has got a part that feels very monotonous. Rajeev Khandelwal as the corrupt police officer, was a convincing choice. Sanjeev Kapoor, Ankur Bhatia, Vivan Bhathena, and Sartaaj Kakkar are the other names in the cast.

There is an effort to make it visually a lot different from the original. While the original’s color palette, staging, and cinematography style had a very organic feel, Ali Abbas Zafar opts for a dystopian setting for this pandemic time story. Neon colors of lights are used, and the framing isn’t too tight. Because of that, the movie deviates from a zone of tension to a mood where we anticipate more stylized action. The action choreography and editing style for all those set pieces acknowledge space continuity, and the cuts aren’t spoiling the punch one should feel for such raw action sequences. Because of the style factor getting more attention, the drama in the story, including the father-son dynamic, feels fragile and more like a namesake story for them to pull off some great stunts.

For a fun and relaxed watch, Bloody Daddy is a really good choice as it offers you a gallery-pleasing set piece at regular intervals. Looking at the pace of things and the atypical action aesthetic of the movie, I felt that the movie was definitely trying to achieve something unique using the base idea of the French film.