Baby Movie Review by Sputnik

Baby Baby
Synopsis
Baby is a story of those unsung heroes who guard our walls when we sleep peacefully in our homes. Steeped in current events, Baby will reach out to audiences of all ages and segments and entertain in a thrilling manner.

The movie’s plot is partly inspired by Zero Dark Thirty and in fact one scene on the plane where Akshay and Danny talk is straight out of Zero Dark Thirty. The climax/ending is completely inspired/copied from Argo. The scenes with the minister remind of Siddharth Basu scenes from Madras Cafe.

The Nepal part of the movie is one of the best scenes of the movie. Taapsee’s scene in the hotel room is excellent. Akshay’s reaction/expression of surprise at her kicking some ass is regressive though. The Bilal operation part in Saudi is very good though some of the stuff shown may be implausible. And the surprise scene in Bilal’s room is the best scene of the movie. There are some family scenes which partly work in that they convey the sacrifice but they also come off as cliched. There are some cheap thrills which create tension which Neeraj usually has in all his movies.

The first half takes some time to get started. The movie’s first action scene is somewhat similar to the first action scene from Ek Tha Tiger. Kay Kay’s escape scene is completely ridiculous. For the ten thousandth time in a movie a vehicle is halfway over a bridge/cliff. The Javed Khan arrest scene is also silly the way Akshay and his officers aren’t thorough. After the Bilal operation the movie loses plot and it just becomes a rip off of Argo. The whole scene will be interesting only to those who haven’t watched Argo.

The movie tries to be politically correct. There are the Muslim militants and a rogue Muslim officer but then there is a Muslim officer leading the operation and a young Muslim who was trained in a terrorist camp who helps them. There is a scene where Taufeeq boasts on how he helped some terrorists and how he writes his religion in capital letters. Akshay responds with how he saved a Muslim family in Gujarat riots against Hindutva guys by killing 7 and getting shot and how he writes Indian as his religion. There are some stereotypical things however like the Muslim streets both in India and Pakistan always having the pictures of moon and star.

Akshay Kumar is very good in the lead role. Madhurima Tuli is ok. Taapsee Pannu is excellent in a brief cameo. Anupam Kher is good and provides some well needed laughs. Kay Kay Menon is completely wasted. Don’t know why he even agreed to do the role. Rasheed Naaz who was very good in Khuda Kay Liye is not that good especially in the early scenes where he is mouthing cliched dialogues. Danny’s role is similar to Anupam Kher’s role in A Wednesday in that he is the narrator. Sushant Singh is good in a small role.

Neeraj Pandey’s direction is very good as usual except for the above mentioned flaws. This is in similar genre to his first movie A Wednesday but this is more of a straight forward movie than that. There are no twists unlike his earlier two movies. There are the usual smart humor lines from time to time as in his previous movies. Even though there are the occasional crowd pleasing dialogues Neeraj avoids getting jingoistic. Baby’s first half slacks but the second half is very engrossing. Don’t know why Neeraj decided to borrow the ending from the already famous Oscar winning Argo. Its definitely lengthy at almost 160 min. It could have been edited to 2 hr as its a song less movie except for the unplugged song which again was not required. Its not perfect but its still a very good thriller. The movie is recommended for those who like serious thrillers.

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26 Comments
  1. Baba 9 years ago

    Haider was perfect.

    • Author
      sputnik 9 years ago

      No it wasn’t.

      “The adaptation of Hamlet to the political backdrop of Kashmir works excellently in the first half of the movie. The movie works on its own even if one has no idea of it being adapted from Hamlet. Its the second half of the movie that doesn’t work on its own. It becomes more an adaptation of Hamlet and it might be hard to appreciate it if one does not know the story of Hamlet.”

      “The song Khul Kabhi while very good felt totally unnecessary in the movie. ”

      “The movie does feel lengthy and it could have been edited by 15-20 minutes in the second half to make it more engrossing and the climax/ending could have been better. “

  2. cr7 9 years ago

    Good review. More or less agree with you.Entertaining movie.

  3. hithere 9 years ago

    Completely agree. Agree with this para ” For the ten thousandth time…..”. *Mild Spoiler*I thought the hotel shooting in Saudi Arabia was delayed when the order was kill.

    • Author
      sputnik 9 years ago

      Thanks hithere.

      Yeah that vehicle hanging over bridge/cliff has been in so many movies now that it isn’t interesting any more.

      hmm… I think Neeraj was just trying to build some tension. They could have killed him from some distance too without having to actually go into his hotel room.

  4. FS 9 years ago

    Lol it didnt hit me that the climax scrne was borrowed from Argo when I watched the movie. I was totally into the movie. You are right though.

    Every film has flaws so do Baby but its first of its kind in indian cinema, i dont know any other to recall.

    • FS 9 years ago

      You have given out too many spoilers in your review

    • Author
      sputnik 9 years ago

      I tried to avoid spoilers as much as I can like just mentioning “surprise” instead of what happens in the Bilal operation scene and so on but its hard to review without even mentioning things like that.

      I was genuinely surprised by that appearance in that hotel room and I thought that was a great thing. But once Akshay said we want to bring him back I knew that the rest of the movie will be Argo.

  5. shan 9 years ago

    Agree with you on most things, Sputnik. Found the movie tedious and overlong. The second half started superbly, with the Nepal part being the best of the movie. Even the operation in Saudi until killing of Bilal is good. After that, the movie drags interminably. The first half was just plain drab – predictable, boring and pointless. The dialogues in particular are very dull, which impacts the movie a lot. Interesting and sharp dialogues would have elevated this movie to a different level, along with better editing. If this was a 90 min movie, it would have been superb. Loved Taapsee’s scene in the hotel. She was excellent. Didn’t find Akshay’s reaction regressive, simply amused. Anupam Kher was good, Akshay was alright.

    • cr7 9 years ago

      “Interesting and sharp dialogues would have elevated this movie to a different level”

      Totally agreed . The dialogues were dull .

      “Loved Taapsee’s scene in the hotel. She was excellent. ”

      Same here . her 10 minutes appearance was the best part of the movie. Akhsay was okay .He is physically fit .So suited the role . But his acting was nothing great.Same with Danny . I liked Sushant Singh a lot.Small role but he acted well .

    • Author
      sputnik 9 years ago

      Thanks @shan Nice to see you here. Where did you disappear? You hadn’t commented in a while.

      “Found the movie tedious and overlong. The second half started superbly, with the Nepal part being the best of the movie. Even the operation in Saudi until killing of Bilal is good. After that, the movie drags interminably. The first half was just plain drab – predictable, boring and pointless. The dialogues in particular are very dull, which impacts the movie a lot. Interesting and sharp dialogues would have elevated this movie to a different level, along with better editing. If this was a 90 min movie, it would have been superb.”

      Yeah the movie is too lengthy at 160 min. 90 min movie would have been superb but I think it wouldn’t have seemed tedious and overlong even at 2 hrs. A Wednesday was only 1 hr 44 min long.

      I think Kay Kay’s jail scene and his whole escape sequence made the movie look predictable. Instead they could have just mentioned that Bilal was some Indian terrorist leader who is now operating from Saudi and this would have saved some 20 min. Also the family portions could have been edited out and instead may be only have her voice on the phone call. I think A Wednesday had Naseer’s wife only on phone call if I remember it correctly.

      “Loved Taapsee’s scene in the hotel. She was excellent. Didn’t find Akshay’s reaction regressive, simply amused.”

      Yeah Taapsee’s scene in the hotel was excellent and agree with you that the Nepal part of the movie being the best part of the movie. When he comes there he is initially surprised which is fine but there is a second glance or look which felt a little bit regressive to me. But it is subtle so its kind of ok.

    • Author
      sputnik 9 years ago

      “Interesting and sharp dialogues would have elevated this movie to a different level”

      There were some Interesting and sharp dialogues in places but they were not there throughout like A Wednesday. I liked some dialogues like the one where Danny tells the PA “Koi Jaldi Nahin. Blast ke baad baat karlenge” or something like that.

      The trailer had this excellent background score which should have been used a lot in the movie but they did not use it properly. They only used it during the Nepal part as far as I remember. Background score is very important and that can elevate even ordinary scenes.

  6. Baba 9 years ago

    having scene the movie, i must say this is the trashiest review from a haider fanatic

    • Author
      sputnik 9 years ago

      LOL

      If this was the trashiest movie review you would have pointed out all the flaws in my review where I was wrong. I am not the fanatic who pre-decides to love a movie and then bashes someone because their comments/review aren’t orgasmic enough.

      • Baba 9 years ago

        i can take apart this review point by point but i dont want to add any contribution to this thread bcos i know the dirty intention behind this review

        since you have also accused me of fanatism – come to my thread and negate the review. why should i come? its not beneficial to me. while it is beneficial to you to come on my thread bcos tq will be the ultimate winner!

        • Baba 9 years ago

          why is my comment put in moderation may i ask?

          Baba says:
          January 24, 2015 11:09 am
          1 0 Rate This

          i can take apart this review point by point but i dont want to add any contribution to this thread bcos i know the dirty intention behind this review

          since you have also accused me of fanatism – come to my thread and negate the review. why should i come? its not beneficial to me. while it is beneficial to you to come on my thread bcos tq will be the ultimate winner!

          • Author
            sputnik 9 years ago

            I did not put your comment under moderation. I don’t know why two of your comments went into moderation but I approved them now.

            The website went down here and I got some 508 Resource Limit error and I had to call customer service to get something restarted. I don’t know if your comment going into moderation has something to do with that.

        • Author
          sputnik 9 years ago

          “i can take apart this review point by point but i dont want to add any contribution to this thread bcos i know the dirty intention behind this review”

          Ha ha. You seem to know more about my “dirty intention” than me 🙂

          “since you have also accused me of fanatism – come to my thread and negate the review. why should i come? its not beneficial to me. while it is beneficial to you to come on my thread bcos tq will be the ultimate winner!”

          LOL

          I am commenting on your review now.

  7. FS 9 years ago

    Your blog is very slow… Taking so much time to open up and then 15 mins probably to get logged in.

    • Author
      sputnik 9 years ago

      hmm was that just now or some time before I made the comment about the site being down?

      I was told that I was getting hit by some IP a lot and I blocked it. I am going to install one new plugin as I am getting lot of spam and see if that helps.

  8. Shaan Khan 9 years ago

    Is you want another perspective, I will post my views on this topic.

  9. Author
    sputnik 9 years ago

    When Akshay first lands in Saudi Arabia and Ashfaq is waiting outside the airport a couple of women are shown who are not wearing any Abaya which I thought was mandatory in Saudi. I had googled a bit and I saw some sites say that its ok when you first land at the airport but you have to wear the abaya or the headscarf once you are out. So wasn’t sure about it and I did not mention it in my review. The movie was shot in Abu Dhabi which is not as conservative as Saudi Arabia.

    Anyway the reason why I am mentioning it now is because of this.

    ——————

    Michelle Obama forgoes a headscarf and sparks a backlash in Saudi Arabia

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/c/embed/157e7d70-a633-11e4-a162-121d06ca77f1

    Barack Obama was in Riyadh on Tuesday to pay his respects to the late Saudi King Abdullah. His visit, for which he cut short a much-hyped trip to India, underscores how important the U.S.-Saudi relationship remains to the American leadership. On social media, however, much of the attention has focused on something else: His wife’s attire.

    As noted by the Associated Press, Michelle Obama did not wear a headscarf or veil Tuesday. In Saudi Arabia, that’s unusual: The country is one of the few on Earth where women are expected to cover their heads, and most Saudi women wear niqabs.

    Exceptions are made for foreigners, however, and Michelle – who did wear loose clothing that fully covered her arms – appears to have been one of them. In photographs from the official events, other foreign female guests are also shown not wearing headscarves.

    More than 1,500 tweets using the hashtag #ميشيل_أوباما_سفور (roughly, #Michelle_Obama_unveiled) were sent Tuesday, many of which criticized the first lady. Some users pointed out that on a recent trip to Indonesia, Michelle had worn a headscarf. Why not in Saudi Arabia?

    The response wasn’t entirely negative – Ahram Online notes that some Twitter users said Michelle shouldn’t be criticized too much, it being a short, impromptu trip and all. Saudi state television did show images of Michelle and her uncovered head, despite some claims that they had digitally obscured her (a widely circulated video with the first lady entirely blurred seems to have been an amateur production).

    Still, the Obamas’ trip to Saudi Arabia comes at a time of remarkable international criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, prompted largely by the flogging of blogger Raif Badawi for insulting Islam. The trip was apparently designed to be apolitical – Obama has said he was “unlikely” to discuss Badawi’s case with the new Saudi king.

    But in Saudi Arabia, the simple act of not covering your head can be political, intentionally or not.

    Link

  10. AAP 9 years ago

    Agree with most of the review. Good review. The scene with minister where Danny tells how terrorist organizations work in India and minister getting surprised by that was wtf. The family scenes were cliche and acting was bad.

    Neeraj cant handle crowd/outdoor scenes and has bad sense of camera. Most of the times there are only close-up shots in movie while actors are mouthing dialogues. In almost all scenes in first half when Akshay is out on the streets in Nepal ppl on the streets keep looking at camera. Even in the climax when the maulana is being taken in the ambulance, the guys carrying his stretcher keep looking at camera.

    Movie has too loud & dumb background music to make one deaf. Silence would have worked better in some scenes to make it more thrilling / interesting.

    The director manages to create some interest in later half but then again after that movie becomes pointless and cliche. Akshay was decent. Didn’t find Taapsee Pannu fight scene that good. Sushant singh has facial cuts/bruises a-la “Satya”. Akshay telling cab-driver to stop and then starts driving himself a-la JWM.

    • Author
      sputnik 9 years ago

      Thanks @ritz_ritz123

      “The scene with minister where Danny tells how terrorist organizations work in India and minister getting surprised by that was wtf.”

      That’s Neeraj’s style. I think those scenes are there just to explain it to the dumb audiences. Even in A Wednesday there were couple of scenes like that where Anupam Kher explains to the minister but the real purpose is to explain it to the audience.

      “In almost all scenes in first half when Akshay is out on the streets in Nepal ppl on the streets keep looking at camera. Even in the climax when the maulana is being taken in the ambulance, the guys carrying his stretcher keep looking at camera.”

      Ha Ha I did not notice that. Sometimes I look at the extras in songs and their expressions are funny.

      “Akshay telling cab-driver to stop and then starts driving himself a-la JWM.”

      Yeah that scene is like JWM.

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