Baby - Don't go by the name!!

Neeraj Pandey is back with his latest outing and going by his record, this one has to be one hell of a movie to outshine his previous outings (A Wednesday and Special 26). Known for his tense treatment of his subjects and his crack of the whip dialogues, it remains to be seen whether he repeats the same. At the outset,
Baby works at a premise that is all too familiar – espionage action. It carries with it teetering similarities to a lot of movies in the same genre. In addition to all of this, it comes dangerously close to being an anti Islamic propaganda piece. And then when all else unfolds, all these inhibitions are blown sky high and how?

The plot of the movie is predictable enough. It acts on the premise set by Nikhil Advani’s D-Day, plateaus with very suspicious similarities to Zero Dark Thirty and finishes it off Argo style. Yet, in the midst of all these ‘inspirations’ there are touches of trademark Neeraj Pandey that make it the entertainer that it is. There are ample doses of caustic deadpan humour and clap worthy dialogues. The whole atmosphere of the movie is so tense that you might really find yourself in the edge of the seat for a change.

Neeraj Pandey needs to be lauded for his sharp writing, typically brilliant dialogue and tense execution. He treats his movie like a high tension commando mission and hits a sniper shot straight through any sense of boredom. Allegations of jingoism are totally justified as there are quite a few scenes in the movie that would be met with thunderous ovation in Indian screens and with flak anywhere else.  But that is not much of a dampener either. He takes his own sweet time and sets a rock solid foundation in the first half and executes the second half with the finesse of a seasoned architect. The second half grips the viewer like a limpet and the similarities to Zero Dark Thirty and Argo dim out and seem insignificant. He is aided to a large extent by the excellent camerawork of Sudeep Chatterjee who knows exactly what Neeraj Pandey’s requirements are (Long shots of people walking on screen and suitably dark tone when necessary). Also to be lauded is Sanjoy Choudhary’s ‘James Newton Howard’ like background score that supports and even compounds the on screen tension. Neeraj Pandey might have found it safe to work on this script as it is in no way original but is a combination of 3 movies whose subject matters suit his style hand in glove. The action sequences too are impeccably choreographed. The hand to hand combat sequences, especially, give tough  competition to the bourne series and James Bond films.

As for the performances, Akshay Kumar who has the main chunk of screen time does full justice. His deadpan expressions and dialogue delivery go well with his usual macho image. His performance in the action sequences is worthy of his Khiladi image . Anupam Kher makes the viewer cry out in woe as his performance is far too whimsically brilliant but his role is far too short. However, equally great performances come from the two Pakistani actors, one who plays a terrorist to the hilt with sometimes bone chilling effect and the other who is a polar opposite and who shares equal screen time with the lead protagonist in the vital last half an hour of the movie and ensures that he rivals the latter. Tapsee Pannu gets to do some sequences that many actresses would thirst for and boy does she do them in style. Rana Daggubati just plays himself with ease– a solid muscular hunk. Danny Denzongpa is good as the head of the ATC. In addition we have brilliant cameos by Sushant Singh, Kay Kay Menon and Murali Sharma which provide most of the humour in the joint after Anupam Kher

To sum it all up, I went to this movie without having my lunch but I did not feel hungry by the time it was done. It was a sumptuous full course meal desert included. Watch it if you can appreciate the justice it has done to it’s many ‘inspirations’. And believe me, by the time this movie is done, you might even believe that it is a heady cocktail of its ‘inspirations’ and sometimes improves upon them. It also isn't hard to forgive the movie for its awfully minor flaws. Neeraj Pandey scores yet again in the thrill meter with his typical style (although this movie does fail to outshine his previous two outings).

Rating - 3.5 on 5