Daddy Cool Movie Review: It is hardly cool or even funny!

The main premise of K Murali Mohan Rao's 'Daddy Cool' is borrowed from Hollywood's 'Death at a Funeral', and does not seem to lend itself to a very seamless translation in Hindi. The film has its moments but they are too few and far in between. The film manages to hold one's attention only in those parts. Actually, the best thing about this movie is the manner in which the screenplay has been plotted. It is a relentless series of events and gags, all delivered with a lot of high energy. This one factor seems to redeem the film, even though the events do seem to be quite bizarre and not a patch on the original. The film's humor is not exactly of a very high quality, but that is the same with most Hindi film comedies.

The unfortunate thing about most comedies made in Bollywood is that they resort to crude tactics to generate laughter. 'Daddy Cool' is no different in that sense as it is replete with crude jokes, some of which may just appeal to five year olds. But its ensemble cast seems to pitch in with a lot of energy and make for quite a weird bunch of characters.

The film centers around the funeral of one Douglas (Sharat Saxena), where this motley crowd gathers and the action begins. They are members of his family and consist of his sons, nephews, nieces, siblings and his widow. Into this solemn family gathering arrives a stranger, played by Rajpal Yadav, who drops a bomb when he claims that and he and the dead Douglas were lovers. This sets of a chain of events, some of which are comic, but most seem to miss the mark. There are a number of subplots in the movie, one which involves the son, played by Suniel Shetty, a struggling writer saddled with a suspicious wife; his niece whose boyfriend (Aftab Shivdasani), accidently consumes some drugs and starts hallucinating and lands up on the roof top in his underpants. Then there is Javed Jaffrey's character, who is saddled with a paralysed uncle (Prem Chopra). There are puns on popular TV shows and cricketers and the male characters in the movie seem to relish in stripping down to their underpants. Of course! This dysfunctional family manages to settle their differences and the curtains go down on a happy family.

Of the actors, Rajpal Yadav and Suniel Shetty stand out amid the ensuing mayhem for their sincere performances. Javed Jaffrey is a very good actor in this genre but can do little to salvage the film as his part is replete with toilet humor. The others are not any better off and so one has actors like Prem Chopra, Chunky Pandey, Aftab Shivdasani, Kim Sharma, Ashish Chowdhury, Aarti Chhabria, Sophie Chowdhury and Tulip Joshi, who are utterly wasted.

The problem with the film is that the director chose to copy a Hollywood film and then decided to make the so-called suitable changes to suit the Hindi film going public. In the process, the film becomes a half baked effort. The makers might have been better off if they had chosen to stick to the original. Also the genre of black comedy is not very easy to emulate to execute, and is best left to experts. The dialogues too could have been punchier and more original. The film's music has been composed by Raghav Sachar and there are two songs which take place in the movie, both of which are quite tuneful.

On a final note, the film is hardly cool, hence the 'Daddy Cool' of the title, again borrowed from the famous Boney M song, hardly does credit to the contents of the movie.