What Is the Story About?
John, Samuel and Kurian are a trio of close friends who meet up at Samuel’s daughter’s wedding. Both Kurian and John are both happy and jealous of the fact that Samuel’s legacy is secured, since his son-in-law, Cyril is a doctor, just like Samuel and Cyril is willing to take over his father-in-law’s hospital. More than that, Kurian’s daughter, Anna and John’s son, Eesho have reached marriageable age – but both of them are refusing to get married. Kurian’s wife, Elsy and John’s wife, Annamma are also trying to get their children interested in each other, so hopefully, they can finally get married. However, Eesho and Anna are keeping secrets of their own. Will these secrets destroy the peace within both of their households?
Performances?
Bro Daddy is a film that thrives on its star studded cast. First and foremost, Mohanlal is a delight in this film. The actor made a name for himself in the action-drama genre in the past couple of decades, but many have forgotten how good this man can be when given a good situational comedy script. He is brilliant and he alone is good enough to pull audiences in to watch the film. Meena is also a delight onscreen as well. Her portrayal of Annamma and her relationships with her husband, son and mother-in-law are all done with such nuance that you can’t take your eyes off her. Lalu Alex and Kaniha have good onscreen presence as well, especially the former.
Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kalyani Priyadarshan portray the main film leads and they do an amazing job of portraying a standard live-in couple, who are hiding it from their families. While both of them give us a more generic portrayal, their onscreen presence really helps this movie.
Analysis
Bro Daddy is only Prithviraj Sukumaran’s second directorial – but we do not see any of the expected “inexperience” onscreen (which is mostly true). The actor-director has dropped another crowd pleaser in the Disney Plus Hotstar premiered feature, and while the cast and script are a part of it, Prithviraj can safely say that his direction also played a good part in it. Bro Daddy is a film that relies heavily on its brilliant cast, situational comedy, perfectly timed pop culture references and a good story to hold it all together – all of which requires a good director to handle. The starting opening credits that also show exposition in the style of comic book drawing as well as the blooper reel shown alongside the end credits are nice touches added by Prithviraj.
However, for the situational comedy, quips and the script to work, they need good actors to play these roles. And luckily for Prithviraj Sukumaran, he knows a few of them (an understatement). The star studded cast is the main driving force of this film. Be it the family doctor portrayed by Jagadish or the couple of minutes of Jaffar Idukki as Fr. Edward Kulathakkal – there are no shortages of big name Malayalam actors in this film. While the dialogue and some of the comedy may seem a little silly in the hands of a few lesser known/less experienced actors, this star cast knows how to expertly work it onscreen.
However, some of the cast is wasted on screen. Unni Mukundan and Jaffar Idukki are the unfortunate actors to experience this – and to an extent, so is Jagadish. True, Unni Mukunadan’s character doesn’t have much to do on screen, but an actor of Mukundan’s caliber is wasted on such a minor guest role. Jaffar Idukki, at least, has more to do, but the actor only gets five minutes of screen time, which is only slightly more than Mukundan’s. However, the biggest “crime” in this film is Soubin Shahir – or rather, his character, the wedding manager, Happy Pinto. The actor does get to deliver a couple of good lines on screen and make a few pop culture references himself, but Happy, the character is irritation personified on screen. An actor of Soubin’s caliber is made to play a character that is forced to be funny (which is never a good sign) and whenever he makes an appearance on screen, we are forced to hold off the desire to start skipping the film.
The script of Bro Daddy is not without its flaws either. While the brilliant cast gives us a performance worth watching, it does hide a few problems in the film. The movie is essentially a two-and-a-half-hour long feel-good film with some funny sequences and references added in the film with around 15-minutes of “crisis” – which does not even have long lasting effects. The biggest crisis in this film is that Anna got pregnant with Eesho’s child. Since they are not married, both of their families will be subjected to ridicule behind their backs. This shouldn’t be a big enough crisis if both families marry them off quickly and send them back to Bangalore without anyone being the wiser. However, both families decide to keep the pregnancy mum from the bride’s father – and we obviously get the predictable ending. Bride’s father finds out that his future son-in-law got a girl pregnant and he cancels the marriage. He gets angry with his future son-in-law for cavalier attitude, but upon finding out the truth, he loses his will to fight. Eesho AKA the future son-in-law makes things right by helping out Kurian AKA the father of the bride with a brilliant project idea. The project idea goes through. Marriage happens. Everyone is happy. Too predictable, an ending.
A little bit of unpredictability would have made the film a lot better – and less about the film’s cast. Like how Eesho tries to reconcile with Kurian. It would have made more sense if Kurian had remained angry with Eesho and not fallen for the blatant “bribe” that was given to him. Or if Eesho’s marketing plan was rejected by Cyril in the end. This would have made the film a bit more grounded and made Bro Daddy a little bit more realistic. However, as the overall theme of the film goes, we expected this ending – and it is not really all that disappointing.
The pop culture references in this film, though, deserve a special mention of their own (even though we have mentioned it a lot of times already). Since this is a Malayalam movie, only people who have watched older Malayalam films will understand the subtle and blatant ones shown in Bro Daddy. The Camel Killing song is a surprisingly funny addition, which a lot of Keralite will appreciate. A portrait of John and Annamma in their house looks a lot like a photo taken from the 1997 film, ‘Varnapakittu’ – which is also the first Malayalam film where both Mohanlal and Meena played lead roles together. The iconic “Mone Dinesha” line written in script doesn’t even need a mention for Mohanlal fans. And these references are just the tip of the iceberg.
Overall, Bro Daddy is a decent feel good feature that is made larger than life by their star-studded cast. Sure, the film has its issues as mentioned above, but the movie is definitely worth a watch – primarily for the situational comedy and the onscreen performances.
Other Artists?
Mallika Sukumaran has a minor role in this film as John’s mother, however, she is iconic in the small amount of screen time that she gets. Jagadish also has a small role who provides a fairly decent performance. However, Soubin Shahir’s character is borderline irritating, and he is an unnecessary addition to this film.
Music and Other Departments?
The direction, editing and cinematography have done a fairly decent job. There could have been a few better sequences, but the film is mostly well directed and shot. The screenplay is fairly good as well. Surprisingly, Bro Daddy’s music is good and the soundtrack is catchy. The location scouts also deserve a special mention as well.
Highlights?
Opening Drawing-Style Opening Credits
Cast
Situational Comedy
Malayalam Pop Culture References
Final Bloopers
Drawbacks?
Underused Actors
Soubin Shahir’s Character
Minor Plot Holes
Predictable Ending
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes
Will You Recommend It?
Yes. It is a rare feel good feature that has a star-studded cast.
Bro Daddy Malayalam Movie Review by Binged Bureau
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