Dear Dad

Dear Dad is a film that marks the Bollywood comeback of Arvind Swamy. Post a long hiatus from the world of cinema, he revived his career in the Tamil film Kadal in which he was the only thing worth seeing. Dear Dad is directed by the debutante director Tanuj Bhramar. Ratnakar M and Shaan Vyas have bankrolled this flick.

Apart from Arvind Swamy, Dear Dad’s concise list of cast members include Himanshu Sharma, Ekavali Khanna and Aman Uppal.

When a devastating secret is made open, the relationship between a son and his father becomes sour. Nithin Swaminathan (Arvind Swamy) tries his best to deal with a rough patch in his life as he finally decides to come out of the closet and things get awry when his son Shivam (Himanshu Sharma) figures it out before Nithin can make him understand things. What follows is a series of emotional drama and how the film tries to establish a point that family is family no matter how difficult things can get. Whether Shivam can accept his dad for what he is forms the crux of the story and the director has said this as a long drive through beautiful Mussorie as the backdrop. Of course, what can be more dramatic in a feel good film than a long drive.

New genres in Bollywood have made makers test some new waters and relationships seem to be the trending topic. The director has weaved the story to be full of warmth and feel goodness but the execution has made it look half baked. The relationship between a son and his father has been captured well and some moments are really touching but the emotional roller-coasters the characters experience doesn’t seem to affect us. The reason for unforeseen changes in the actions of the actors seem factitious. In the name of providing some comic relief, the film does detour into the often taken road of having a few silly characters.

Arvind Swamy is given a lot of opportunities to show his acting prowess and he has used it well. Scenes where he tries to make his son understand about his state and the conversation with the TV reality show star (Aman Uppal) stand as a testimony to this. Since the story line is made obvious in just a few minutes into the film, there isn’t much for the director to balance in his attempt to hold the audience’s curiosity.

Dear Dad is an honest attempt to showcase the different issues that might arise amidst a relationship and how it’s the duty of a person to accept his family member for who they are.