And the film hints at it but doesn’t pursue it.Daddy, written by Rampal and Ahluwalia, tells the story of Arun Gulab Gawli (Arjun Rampal), the don of Dagri Chawl in Chinchpokli, Mumbai. They commit some murders, rise to have a meeting with Bhai Maqsood, aka he-whose-name-is-not-taken-in-the-entirety-of-the-film.The two standout moments in the film are a shootout when a background score comes on that is till date the best homage to R. A table in a thana has a dinner thali lying on it untouched. This story comes to us via several narrations: A character appears and their voiceover begins, and then it’s handed over to another and another…I imagine that the idea behind this relay commentary was to offer different perspectives on the goonda-turned-godfather, with each narrator adding a crucial piece to create a 4D character with different sides and viewpoints. There’s graffiti and posters on walls, forgotten, decaying tent stuff lying in Dagdi’s lanes… all these bring alive spaces, making them ache for drama and action. Give him a script, dialogue, getup, a camera gazing expectantly and a director telling him what to do, yet all that his gorgeous face can come up with is the look of being stunned at its own shocking inability to conjure any expression. Neither their dialogue nor the ensuing action tells us anything about them, and not much about the don himself. Meanwhile, Arun has married Zubaida (Aishwarya Rajesh), had kids, taken to philanthropy and is now called, lovingly, by one and all — Daddy. I imagine that most scenes began and ended with "and the camera pans to Arun’s face, whose jaws are clenched, brows knitted and eyes vacant".

 It is dry and dull and made up of the most cursory research and bland characters.That, sadly, is surprising because Daddy is directed by Ashim Ahluwalia who made his debut with the absolutely stunning Miss Lovely (2012). Soon he forms the Akhil Bharatiya Sena, sweeps the elections and is catapulted to the Vidhan Sabha where he arrives in a Gandhi topi. Just like, let’s say, I am a non-trapeze artist. Maqsood Bhai’s film financier, arms dealer, hawala agent et cetera now get tapkaoed and the limping cop (Nishikant Kamat), who nurses a grudge against Arun, seems to be getting closer. And he has now scratched it. There was something very interesting going on Daddy — showing a don in the making who is at least twice called "fattu" because he doesn’t take a clear shot and, when another does but doesn’t get paid, he doesn’t squeak. Rivalries, ambitions result in his friends get tapkaoed and Arun simply finding himself at the helm of affairs. A whimpy, darpok, mingy don.As exciting as Rampal’s look is initially, like the film, it gets less and less so. His face will hold that for a bit, but eventually it’ll grimace and be in mild depression.Rating: Cast: Arjun Gawli, Aishwarya Rajesh, Nishikant Kamat, Anand Ingale, Rajesh ShringarpureDirector: Ashim AhluwaliaDaddy is a mildly successful but very good-looking star’s needless ego trip. But Rampal doesn’t have it in him to articulate this complexity on his face or convey it with his body. When the rivalry with Maqsood Bhai gets serious, the help of some random Joshi baba is taken who, while running the biggest bhains shelter I have ever seen, harbours ace killers. What he then proceeds to do in these settings is hugely disappointing One reason for that is the screenplay which offers very little.We get mood, lots of it, of the 1980s and 1990s, fun-seedy settings, fabulous camerawork and cool music.  The Wikipedia page on Gawli has more excitement and heft. This Dawood is a compost of dark glasses and creepy shirts. But, at best, I’ll graze the bar before dropping down hard into the net, screaming. Arjun Rampal, it seems, had a creative itch to play a real-life don who is still living — an exiting and daunting task for the best of thespians.The nonsensical, daffy lyrics with infusion of English words brought the film alive for a bit. It’s as if prepared, chronological text on the life of a don is read by one, and then passed on to another and another. In case a lot is at stake, like, say, my izzat, some money, an honourable mention in the Khatron Ke Phisaddi annual album, I might chant "Jai Bajrangbali" and jump to grab it.The story then is simply this: Arun tags along his friends Babu and Rama, completing the troika called BRA. How nice.What we do get a lot of are moments when Arun had decided to quit, was going to quit, had planned to quit, but then, that day… Daddy often feels like a apologist’s hagiography. Which is no surprise given Rampal has co-written it.Which is not a bad idea given that the film itself is incredibly inept. But the proceedings don’t have the energy to make it a memorable day.  Swing from it I won’t, because I can’t. I mean, I have seen extras in court scenes who are more memorable. And the story it chooses, and perhaps has the don’s sanction to tell, is of an awkward, reluctant don who rose step by step — from hafta vasooli and chori-chakari to satta and smuggling; from targeted carrying out/ordering many murders and becoming the last don standing in Mumbai, to a politician — by accident, of fate and circumstance. I mean, give me a horizontal bar dangling by firm ropes, a safety net down below and yet, no matter how many times someone swings the bar at me and screams "come on, come on," I’ll stay frozen.

The narrators themselves remain elusive.His Daddy tries to tell the story of the rise of a Maratha don against a Muslim don, but it can’t do so with any measure of coherence or drama.Woven into this story is an interesting motif — that Gawli was someone who was happy posing as a benevolent dada while his real interests lay in spending time with his family and smoking ganja. Never has India’s Most Wanted  been more bafflingly nondescript and decrepit. And a superb club dance song which is all Bappi da with the girl and the boy, in glittering gold, channelling Mithun Da and Kalpana Iyer. Basically because he really was a fattu, unable to shoot even when urgently required. Burman.D. They are a deadly two-member band of non-lethal actors.. But the screenplay, dialogue, acting and storytelling are so incompetent and feeble that all it adds up to is a fattu don in a fattu fillum. He scans and then locks to memory regular spaces with a dash of the bizarre. If they still insist, I’ll take the horizontal bar home and cut it into two pieces. While Babu and Rama are humbled in his presence, Arun scowls because he considers Dagri Chawl his illaka and doesn’t want outsiders. Unfortunately, it’s a clever device that’s been squeezed dry of all its creative, naughty potential. Together, Arjun Rampal and his star pal create a bore fest playing Hindu don to Muslim don.Just like that, Mr Rampal is can’t act. If we didn’t know the story already, no mai ka lal or mai ki ladli would have figured that one big star is trying to play Dawood here. Though the prosthetics people gave Mr Rampal the Gawli nose and made his beatific face rugged and less dashing, "playing a living don" for the non-actor amounts to posing for about two-three stills with two-three gestures. Dates and year appear on the screen repeatedly, flagging up milestones in the don’s career. Ahluwalia is clearly a director with a keen eye for the bizarre, quaint.. He is simply a non-actor.. All that’s wholesale hammock suppliers revealed is their very basic identity — mother of the don, moll of a Pathan don who turned at the behest of another, cop who pursued the don, Muslim neighbour who fell in love and married don. Problem is that Mr Rampal is neither a bad actor nor a terrible one.But then the past catches up with him.

Megosztás a facebookon