Daddy Cool

Medium : Malayalam
Starring : Mammootty, Master Dhananjay, Richa Pallod, Biju Menon, Daniel Balaji
Director : Aashiq Abu
Music : Bijibal

Though our top heroes are selective in their projects, occasionally the late release of some of their movies may affect the long run of some other projects done by them, to a certain extend. After ‘Ee Pattanathil Bhootham’, this is another release for the Megastar with in a month’s gap. Since the first film is not so bad and it is catching up its pace slowly (even after releasing late), the arrival of ‘Daddy Cool’ may affect the long run of the former film. Such a custom is not good for a small industry like ours.

The name of the new film by Mammootty is familiar through a hit English song,” daddy cool…” from Bonney M. ‘Daddy Cool’ has got some excellent posters and publicity stills involving the hero and the kid. But, the viewers are not so aware of the story line or the treatment of the project before its release. A chance for having a pre assumption on the project in such cases is not there and it is an added advantage for any project if it is neatly made. Aashiq Abu, who has assisted director Kamal in many films, takes the role of script writer-director here. Sameer Thahir (‘Big B’ fame) is the cinematographer.

Hero (Mammootty) is a crime branch CI. He lives with his wife and kid (Richa Pallod, Master Dhananjay). He is not punctual and also his laziness in the job has caused some official troubles to him. He always loves to watch cricket game in television. He has got a deep affection to his son. He will do anything for his kid. Such an attitude has caused problems in his family life. He comes across some underworld gangs (Ashish Vidhyarthi, Daniel Balaji etc), as a part of the investigation. His meeting with the cricket star Sreekanth (Govind Padmasoorya – ‘Adayaalangal’, ‘IG’ fame), leads to certain incidents happened in his life later. At one stage, he even lost his child. What happened to the hero and his family in between the official commitments is shown in the later areas of ‘Daddy Cool’.

The new director had succeeded in placing the central character which has got the chance to perform the family and official emotions. It is after a long time that Mammootty got a chance to perform such a father character. His combination scenes with the kid are also good. Mammooty is glamorous and his soundless act as a cool daddy is also a plus point for the film. The director had shown the father’s heroism through the son’s viewpoint in a song which is good to see. Master Dhananjay (serial ‘Sree Guruvayoorappan’ fame) is cool and has done well. Though her performance in the first few shots felt lengthy and nervous, but later it is corrected and thus to see a new face, Richa Pallod as hero’s pair also felt different. After placing him in small and irrelevant roles in films like ‘Black’ and ‘Bhagavan’, finally Daniel Balaji (‘Vettayadu Vilayadu, ‘Kaakka Kaakka’ fame) got a chance to perform here.

Sameer Thahir (camera man) and V.Saajan (editor) had worked excellently to make the visuals rich. The animated title sequences are also catchy. Bijibal should have been more serious on the song composition side. But he has compensated it through an excellent back ground score. The songs are visualized colorfully. The choreography of the children song and the climax song (by Harikumar, Gayathri Rahguram) are good. The song in the end portion is a style adapted from the bollywood (we saw the same in ‘Sagar Alias Jacky’ also). I didn’t see a single man standing up, ready to exit when the colorful song which came after the climax was played. We are ready to welcome such new innovations, since it is smartly done. The presentation of the film shows the talent of the new young director. He had succeeded in creating it without big mistakes.

‘Daddy Cool’ is a family-action entertainer. For the time being, you can’t complaint that the hero is not doing roles which his age demands.

Rating : 7.5 / 10