Daddy Cool

There's something genuinely touching about the premise of "Daddy Cool"—a man grieving his father while life spirals into absurdity around him feels like the kind of emotional foundation Bollywood could really sink its teeth into. Yet the film struggles to balance its emotional weight with the chaos it's trying to orchestrate. Director Rishab Bathija attempts to juggle grief, comedy, and family drama, but the tones clash awkwardly rather than complement each other. When Steven desperately tries to deliver his eulogy and keeps getting interrupted, there's real pathos waiting to break through—the vulnerability of a son unable to say goodbye—but the film too often abandons that ache for surface-level comedy. The performances feel competent but uninspired; we never quite believe in Steven's internal turmoil or Nancy's presence as a grounding force when the script treats them as plot devices rather than people.

The introduction of Andrew as a blackmailer feels like the film pivoting away from what could have been its heart. Instead of deepening the exploration of grief and family secrets, it chases melodrama and financial stakes that feel imported from a different, lesser movie. The extended family dynamics hint at something richer—generations of dysfunction, unspoken resentments, the ways we perform normalcy while falling apart—but these threads get tangled in demands for laughs and plot twists. What we're left with is a film that wants to say something real about loss and family