Arun D Jose has a reputation similar to Girish AD, where his movies are not plot-heavy, and yet he manages to make them highly engaging by infusing humor into chaotic situations. Much like his other films, Jo & Jo and 18+, his latest directorial, Bromance, also relies on situational humor. But unlike his other films, this one is taking ample time to get into that ROFL mode. With a lot of the situations and dialogue humor in the final act of the film making the audience laugh out loud, Bromance is a passable, fun ride.
Shinto and Binto are brothers. During a New Year party, Binto gets a call from his brother’s friend Shabeer that Shinto is missing. Binto arrives at Kochi in his brother’s flat. He finds out that his brother has broken up with his girlfriend, Aishu, a few days ago. The efforts of Binto to find his brother Shinto along with Shabeer, Aishu, a hacker named Hariharasudhan, and a goon named Courier Babu is what we see in Bromance.
The scripting style and even the film’s treatment have similarities with the other ADJ films. But while the other films get into the fun mood very early on, Bromance is taking its own time to reach that point. From the initial patches that felt like a wannabe Thallumala, the first real laughter element comes in the movie in the scene that introduced Courier Babu. As I already said, the film is not plot-heavy. So writers Thomas P Sebastian and Raveesh Nath are building humor inside a scene. In the second half of the movie, a major chunk of the runtime is focused on everyone in the gang trying to get hold of a phone. It is only because of the humor that portion isn’t becoming annoying.
Mathew Thomas, as Binto, plays this young lad with temper issues. To be frank, in the earlier portions of the movie, this impatient anger has a very caricatured and exaggerated tone. But as the chaos in the story increased, this characteristic of the character and its placement in the story started to work. For a larger part of the runtime, Arjun Ashokan is just a supporting character, and when he switches gears in the final act, the performance never really went into that zone of overdoing. Mahima Nambiar, as Aishwarya, gets a pretty good role and has an equal space in the gang in all sorts of situations.
The guy who scored the most with his signature counter dialogues and shocked expressions was Sangeeth Prathap as Hariharasudhan. In a movie that needed the support of situational humor the most, Sangeeth was giving it to the film at regular intervals. Kalabhavan Shajon as Courier Babu blends swagger and humor neatly, and I loved his headbang in those musical moments. Shyam Mohan, Binu Pappu, Ambareesh, Bharath Bopanna, etc., are the other names in the star cast.
The major difference between this film from the previous directorial ventures of Arun D Jose is the style factor. Be it the credits song in the beginning or the fight sequence in the climax, there is this choreographed feel to most of the parts, and the presence of neon lights in frames sets the movie in that slightly unrealistic space. Most of this style change is visible in the first half, where we are mostly witnessing the introduction of several characters. Once the map is laid out, the treatment goes back to the director’s usual style, and there, you get to experience the fun side of things. And the good thing was that they were not overdoing it. The background score and the songs are in sync with the movie’s mood. With bright costumes and a lot of colors, the visual language of the film has a funky energy.
If you have enjoyed watching Arun D Jose’s previous films Jo & Jo and 18+, Bromance has moments that can make you laugh out loud. In terms of complete satisfaction from an audience point of view, this one is easily the weakest in the director’s filmography. But by keeping things simple and humorous, Bromance manages to become a chaos-comedy that you can sit through comfortably.
By keeping things simple and humorous, Bromance manages to become a chaos-comedy that you can sit through comfortably.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
