Based on the 2011 French thriller Sleepless Night, Shahid Kapoor-starrer Bloody Daddy is a night of thrill and action packaged for riveting action lovers. The movie is about a slightly bent cop who is on the trail of cops more corrupt than him. It’s the height of the corona pandemic and while the nation is reeling under the burden brought on by the disease, drug dealers are thriving as people want to smoke up and forget their reality.
Actor Shahid Kapoor in action in Bloody Daddy.
Sumer and his partner learn of a drug deal but instead of nabbing the criminals, they decide to intervene and collect the bounty for themselves. Their plan goes for a toss, however, and they end up killing one of the couriers. The other courier escapes and he might have recognised Sumer. His worst fears come through when his son Atharva gets kidnapped by the drug kingpin, who demands the return of his cache in exchange for Atharva. Sumer can’t trust anyone in his department, even his partner, as he knows everyone is corrupt. He goes on a one man rescue mission, killing everyone who stands in the way…
The whole narrative of the film takes place within one night. It’s set in a posh seven star hotel owned by the drug lord. It holds a prestige value for him and one of the most hilarious scenes from the film includes Sumer wreaking havoc at a wedding dinner and the gangster apologising profusely for it. While an action thriller doesn’t merit song and dance numbers, the makers have gone around that by making singer Badshah play himself at the marriage party.
The film is high on brawns but doesn’t fall short on brains too. The way Sumer goes out outwitting his enemies brings a smile to your face.
There are action pieces aplenty to satisfy action junkies. The set pieces are slickly shot and feel like fights normal people might have, rather than trained fighters. The John Wick films have received the Gun Fu culture and there are a couple of scenes which pay homage to the Keanu Reeves kind of technique. The film’s pace doesn’t slack. We follow Sumer from one tense situation to another, knowing that even beaten and bleeding, he’s bound to come on top. It’s strange to see Shahid Kapoor in the guise of a hardcore action star. He’s taken to the proceedings like a duck to water and seemingly has the time of his life bashing up people and getting bashed up in return.
Image composite from film Bloody Daddy.
Director Ali Abbas Zafar made sure the attention of the viewers doesn’t waver and has managed to extract believable performances from his cast. Ronit Roy is good as a mild mannered villain who believes he has changed his stripes by becoming a hotelier and runs his drug business in the corporate way. Sanjay Kapoor makes an appearance as his business partner who loves designer togs. Rajeev Khandelwal plays the amoral cop Sameer with aplomb while Diana Penty too looks good as the only honest cop left in the building. The film hinges on Shahid Kapoor’s performance. He has done edgy roles before, in Kaminey (2009), Haider (2014) and Kabir Singh (2019). Here he brings all that experience to fore to give us a character who might be corrupt as a cop but whose heart is full of love for his son. His character grows increasingly fatalistic as the film progresses, willing to lay his life for his child. He’s an anti-hero with a heart and easily essays one of the best characters of his career.