Daddy (2017)

Daddy is this year’s highly anticipated crime drama biography film written and directed by Ashim Ahluwalia focusing on the rise and fall of India’s most feared gangster Arun Gawli. The film stars Arjun Rampal in a lead role portraying gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli. Arjun Rampal also co-wrote and produced the film.

The film starts in the Central Mumbai of 70’s and 80’s when employment crisis strikes in mill-workers’ life which ultimately affected their next generation and their inclination towards illegal business and underworld. The trio of mill-worker’s son Arun Gawli (Arjun Rampal), Babu Reshim (Anand Ingale), and Rama Naik (Rajesh Shringarpore) comes together and starts a small time ‘B.R.A.’ gang working under Dawood Ibrahim, here named as Maqsood (Farhan Akhtar). The story also focuses on the family and love life of Arun, who eventually get married with Asha Gawli (Aishwarya Rajesh). Arun decides to leave the underworld life back for his family, but unfortunate killings of his mates Babu and Rama force him to emerge as the Don of Dagadi Chawl and the greatest enemy of Maqsood he has ever faced. In midst of all this, Inspector Vijaykar Nitin (Nishikant Kamat), with his hidden agendas keeps on chasing Arun. The rest of the movie revolves around gang war between Arun and Maqsood, and Arun trying to make his clean social image by stepping into Indian politics.

The story of the film is interesting but predictable at the same time. The outstanding narration is one of the best things where director and screenplay writer has done it flawlessly by exploring the story in the past-present fashion. In sense of acting, performances of leads as well as supporting cast are real and intense. The excellent art direction has brilliantly recreated the Bombay (older name to Mumbai) with very much detailing discovering dark alleys of the underworld and Dagdi Chawl (fortress of Arun).

There are very few gory and disturbing scenes but having very less bloodshed and less dark in nature. The only flaw of the story is that it does not have any thrilling moments with unexpected twists and turns, which audience generally expect in the crime genre movies. The story as a whole seems biased to Arun Gawli like he is trying to justify his side in the court which feels character focused and hence loses the integrity of biopic. Apart from this, the recreation of Mumbai underworld era, gang wars, killings, and intensity in character performances deserves appreciation.

Verdict : Definitely worth your time if crime drama genre is your cup of tea.

Rating : 3/5


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