Bromance (2025) Movie Review: A Comedy of Failed Gags with Few Laughs

Malayalam audience is not alien to chaos-driven cast-heavy comedy vehicles. Most Priyadarshan movies had third acts where a hugely talented star-cast gets embroiled in never-ending chaos. Arun D Jose’s latest directorial Bromance (2025) tries to borrow from such works while also sticking to Gen-Z’s favorite trends, pop-culture lingo, situational and dialogue humor. “Bromance” retains the essence of Arun D Jose’s previous directorial outings (Jo&Jo, 18+) in terms of its target audience and wafer-thin plotline.

Written by Arun D. Jose, Raveesh Nath, and Thomas P. Sebastian, “Bromance” follows Binto who sets out on a self-search hunt to find his missing brother, Shinto. Binto is a wannabe influencer who finds sadistic pleasure in shooting people in their most uncomfortable moments for viral fame. Binto shares a friendly yet envious bond with Shinto who has a picture-perfect image at home. But, things take an unexpected turn when reveals about Shinto unravel one after the other much to Binto’s dismay. All of this begins when Shabeer – Shinto’s best friend – informs Binto about his sudden case of missing.

Binto meets Shabeer, Courier Babu, a small-time thug and moneylender, to whom Shinto owes a lumpsome, and Hariharasudhan, an ethical hacker who leads the team to locate Shinto. A head-and-tail-less man-missing case investigation is led by this group of idiosyncratic personalities who join Binto for monetary and other reasons best known to them. Their search for Shinto leads them to Coorg where they meet Shinto’s latest ex-girlfriend Aishwarya, her family, and her notorious elder brother. The endless chaos and proceedings that ensue in Coorg form the rest of this comic caper. What happened to Shinto? Will Binto finally find Shinto? Will the gang escape Aishwarya’s notorious family’s clutches unscathed? The rest of “Bromance” answers all of these questions in the final hour of the movie.

A still from Bromance (2025). — A still from “Bromance” (2025)

The first hour of “Bromance” invests a lot of time in setting up each of these characters and their idiosyncratic personalities. The stakes are rolled out and Shinto’s best-kept secrets see the daylight. From having a deep financial crisis to an ex-girlfriend’s alleged cheating, there seems to be a little more to Shinto’s disappearance. However, the makers of “Bromance” fail to set up a truly interesting premise – thanks to visible patches in an already wafer-thin plotline and writing. But, things take a sharp turn for the betterment of the film in the latter hour where chaos is relentlessly unleashed.

Comparisons with the third-act chaos template of Priyadharshan films make little sense because the former had exceptionally talented actors to anchor the story by undoing flaws in the writing. All thanks to their gifted comedic abilities, even in the most outlandish and unbelievable moments, the audience was in splits. This is exactly one of the major reasons why “Bromance” falls flat. It has a star cast that fails to heavy-lift simple moments, ace situational comedy, and generate laughter.

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Most of Bromance’s comedy lies in over-the-top situational humor and Gen-Z meme-culture. This could be a bummer for an audience that doesn’t quite fall in this bracket. Girish AD’s “Premalu” also had similar template humor, but things worked far better there with underlying emotions, character arcs, and a winning writing team topped by pitch-perfect casting choices. “Bromance” lacks this emotional quotient and its characters evoke zero connection in the audience. The Kodagu representation in the film could also align towards a problematic side from the point of view of its natives.

Coming to the casting choices, Sangeeth Prathap is the sole scene-stealer of “Bromance.” He pulls off a character similar to Premalu’s Amal Davis and leads many unfunny gags to a landing with his expressions. Mathew Thomas overacts every time he pulls up his ‘watch-me-do-comedy-by-yelling’ sleeves. He doesn’t get into the nuances of someone who has hypertension and undeniably gives the most intolerable performance in the film.

Bromance (2025) Movie — Another still from “Bromance” (2025)

Arjun Ashokan is in his “Romancham” element but is quite rollicking fun in the film’s third act. Mahima Nambiar plays a pivotal character with some solid action and her Kasaragod dialect is fun to hear. Binu Pappu convincingly plays a loathsome cop but his character deserved more to do than randomly disappearing. A superior talent like Kalabhavan Shajohn on the other hand is massively wasted but his Don-Lee-like appearance and related references could work for the ones who get it.

However, “Bromance” for what it’s worth does have some moments. Even if it doesn’t work seamlessly like a “Premalu,” “Romancham,” or “Jan-e-man,” some of the references, outlandish situational comedy, dialogues, and climax garner solid chuckles. Sangeeth Prathap’s chemistry with the entire cast is effortless and the third act is tightly packed which seems racy than two-thirds of the entire film. Akhil George’s camera work captures the youthful vibe of the film aptly, while Govind Vasantha’s music is a let-down. Chaman Chakko makes some interesting editing choices that work in the film’s favor, especially in the highly energetic third act.

To conclude, “Bromance” is an over-the-top comedy that sometimes works and most of the time doesn’t. It has occasional moments of laughter, but mostly moments of failed gags. Except for Sangeeth Prathap, Arjun Ashokan, and Kalabhavan Shajohn, most of the actors don’t fit into their roles, and their inability to pull through over-the-top comedy sticks out evidently throughout the film. To add on, there is little to no effort from the makers’ end to adequately garnish the film with emotions to justify its title.