Ashdoc's movie review---Baby

[ashdoc]

It's a gripping and tense and taut thriller that gets tauter and tauter as it gets going....

And it keeps you on the edge of the seat at the climax approaches....

It shows hard muscled men delivering crunching blows and battle trained women matching them punch for punch....

And it shows men who deserve to die being killed without any ado....

No long dialogues and spoken or said....But instead , dedicated men and women are ready to lay their lives in the line of duty without any theatrics....

It's not a film for the softies and the liberals....for the neighboring country is openly shown harboring those who wish ill for our nation....

And it's not a film for the pseudosecularists either....

.....For it's a film on terrorism....

And all the terrorists---they are shown belonging to only one religion....

No filmy explanations are given to prove that the religion to which the terrorists belong does not support terrorism ; but instead , that message is conveyed to us by the quiet dignity with which some right minded people who belong to the same religion as the terrorists do their duty towards the country without question and acquit themselves with honour....

Director Neeraj Pandey comes back after the hard hitting film 'A wednesday' with another film that tackles the theme of terrorism ; and he proves that he is no one film wonder by making a film that sends out the same loud and clear message as the earlier film---that there can be no softness while dealing with terrorists , and no liberalism while dealing with traitors....

And unfortunately , traitors do exist among us....as Ajay Singh Rajput ( played by Akshay Kumar ) finds out....

They are being used as pawns by those sit in our neighboring country hatching plans to kill us , and Ajay learns of terrorist plots being planned during interrogation of one of these traitors ( and Indian who belongs to the same religion as our neighbour ).....

This leads to an ISI agent ( an Indian really , but again---belonging to the same religion as the ISI )....

The scene in which Ajay barges into the house of the ISI agent who lives smack in the middle of a locality of his coreligionists and forces him to confess his crimes ( inspite of his coreligionists raising hell outside ) is dramatic , and sets the tone for the rest of the film .

But the terror masterminds are not quiet either , and bring the plan to free one of their men ( Bilal---played by Kay Kay Menon ) to a successful conclusion....

So the task before Ajay and his team ( a group of dedicated individuals who agree to be disowned by their own country if they are caught ) is to bring Bilal back from foreign shores , so that further attacks are stopped....

But will the attacks stop ?---especially if the terror mastermind who hatched the plot of freeing Bilal is still openly giving hate filled speeches in our neighboring country calling for holy war....

When will the mastermind be caught ??

Watch the movie for the answers....

The action moves from Mumbai to Nepal to Saudi Arabia , and the lens of the photographer gives a rare beauty to both Nepal and Saudi Arabia---the cinematographer has obviously not shown the grimmer aspects of the two societies , like poverty and unrest in Nepal and the harsh religious laws and trampling of women's rights in Saudi Arabia....instead , we are shown shots of Nepal's beautiful tourist places and the superb roads and bridges and desert resorts of Saudi Arabia....

There are no songs in the movie , and no songs means no romance---I told you this film is not for the softies ,and it's not for the romantics either....

Post interval the second half is truly gripping ; it is a no frills thriller which concentrates on one subject only---that of terrorism.....

Akshay Kumar has realized his own limitations as an actor , and tried to act within those limitations ; and his effort has paid off....

However the film becomes too high tech as it moves towards the climax , and it's use of technology may prove too much for the illiterate masses.....

But the classes will appreciate it's use of technology....

The main sticking point is the massive use of cinematic liberty to overcome many hurdles in the film , and this overuse of cinematic liberty did rankle me....

But the overuse of cinematic liberty did not come in the way of the entertainment which the film offers us , but rather I daresay that it helped the film to entertain us....

And entertain us it did....

Way to go , Baby !! ( Now that was a silly name for a terror movie )....

Verdict---Baby delivers big time !!
Four star rating .

 

[hit&run]

A sikular review by NDTV gave 2 stars to it, but it meet with good responses in comment sections. The words were used like new saffron censor board etc. I think the review was brought down by the website.

Now Anupama Chopra is giving 3.5 star for a solid entertainment.

 

[ashdoc]

A sikular review by NDTV gave 2 stars to it, but it meet with good responses in comment sections. The words were used like new saffron censor board etc. I think the review was brought down by the website.

Now Anupama Chopra is giving 3.5 star for a solid entertainment.

Here is the NDTV secular review---

SPOILERS ALERT

A central minister's smug personal secretary unthinkingly belittles the sacrifices of India's brave spies.

As his boss looks on, the protagonist, an undercover agent who revels in playing with danger, gets up from his seat, walks up to the door, shuts it, walks back to the impertinent official and slaps him.

The act sums up this film's firm belief that the 'heroism' of the violent 'patriot' is not to be trifled with.

But there is no way of telling if this scene is meant to be merely funny, or does it have the greater purpose of eliciting applause for the cool insouciance of the no-nonsense hero?

Baby, written and directed by Neeraj Pandey, is a tricky film in more ways than one.

It might have been hailed as just another innocuous, smartly-packaged, competently shot espionage thriller if only the politics at its heart not been so dangerously dodgy.

Early in the film, the unstoppable spy hisses: "I can do anything." A little later, the terror mastermind he is up against declares: "India cannot do anything".

So, in this all-out everything-or-nothing battle, the onus falls squarely on the invincible hero to prove the enemies of the nation wrong.

In the bargain, the courageous man of action, under official but covert orders, scythes down everything and everyone that comes in his way.

The point that Baby seems to make is that it isn't just trained killing machines, but also the nation as a whole, that can, and should, do 'anything', collateral damage be damned.

The hero barges into minority localities, uses extra-legal methods to extract confessions and leads from suspects, and eliminates anybody who is remotely troublesome.

Baby unabashedly reinforces the mainstream media's worst stereotypes and constantly plays on the collective fears of a populace that is only too willing to find and hang scapegoats for the troubles of our contentious times.

What makes Baby doubly problematic is that it presents the story as a reflection of reality, and not just as a piece of fiction.

There are umpteen references to 26/11, the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, and to other actual figures and incidents that have made the headlines in recent times.

When the film opens, a crack team of 12 secret agents is down to just four, and Operation Baby - the name stems from the fact that the counter-terrorism mission is meant to run for only five years - is now on its last legs.

Maulana Mohammed Rehman (Rasheed Naz), modelled on the real-life Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, is planning a big terror strike in India.

Ajay Singh Rajput (Akshay Kumar), right hand man of counter-terrorism strategist Feroz Ali Khan (Danny Denzongpa), traverses the globe to thwart the conspiracy.

In the bargain, he has to contend with enemies without and rivals within the ranks.
Baby has actors of the calibre of Kay Kay Menon, Anupam Kher, Danny Denzongpa and Sushant Singh in the cast. Thrown together into a tedious storyline, they can do little to make it work.

Baby is a dreary drama that meanders from one action sequence to another without making the audience any wiser.

The only scene that is mildly surprising involves a female agent (Taapsee Pannu) giving a terror suspect a taste of her fighting prowess.

It becomes amply clear where Baby is headed when, right at the outset, Indian spy Rakesh is mercilessly pummeled in Istanbul by rogue agent Jamal and his accomplices.

But even as our man Ajay sends the Taufiqs, Bilals and Javeds of the world scurrying for cover, there is that token patriotic Indian Muslim hovering in the background - the hero's unwavering superior who calls the shots from Delhi.

And there is, for good measure, a contrite Muslim, too. A young engineer, after a stint in a terrorist training camp, has a change of heart and decides to help the cause of the undercover agents.

Baby also has one blazing confrontation scene that might particularly thrill the new saffron-tinged censor board.

A terrorist tells the hero that in the religion column of government forms he writes MUSLIM in bold and capital letters.

The agent responds with a story about how he fought for 24 hours to save a Muslim family during the Gujarat riots.

He then goes on to stress that on government forms he writes INDIAN, in bold and capital letters.
One can only cringe. Baby is a superficial cinematic condensation of the shrill television images, newspaper headlines and communally-charged political posturing that we are subjected to day in and day out. Who needs more?

 

[ashdoc]

a reply to theNDTV secular review--

NDTV reviews Baby, concludes that movies on Terrorism can decrease your IQ

 

[thakur_ritesh]

Rarely do we make good movies on terrorism, and this one has to be one such good movie. Go watch!

 

[nrj]

It's a good attempt, with lots of flaws & unrealistic execution; but I guess thats as good a movie you can get from Bollywood.

On the other note, people comparing it with Zero Dark Thirty & Pandey-Kumar being Scorsese-Dicaprio of India should just die !

 

[Nicky G]

Every now and then a Hindi movie crops up that worth watching, since I do not follow the trailers this was a welcome surprise. Incidentally, the last Hindi movie I found worth watching was also an Akshay Kumar starer, Special 26.

The best aspect for me was it was under-stated as you'd expect such operations to be, there were no flashy, over-the-top action scenes that have degraded the quality of not just Indian but US movies as well. Obviously a lot of things could have been more 'realistic', grittier and better explained for the mass to follow, overall, it was a much needed movie and I hope many similar follow.

One brilliant aspect of US domination is cultural export mainly through Hollywood, we in India do not even propagate our culture within India. Movies on our defence forces is an absolute must.

Overall, good effort, hope many such movies follow.

A sikular review by NDTV gave 2 stars to it, but it meet with good responses in comment sections. The words were used like new saffron censor board etc. I think the review was brought down by the website.

Now Anupama Chopra is giving 3.5 star for a solid entertainment.

NDTV and the likes can only digest trash such as PK or Haider, let them be.

I am sure if this were a movie portraying Hindu extremists, it would be considered brilliant work. Unfortunately for them, reality does not map to their warped reality. At least they got the bit about 2002 riots and how the hero saved a poor minority family. Perhaps that was not enough to offset the light their dear Pakis were shown in or that India actually succeeded in preventing attacks in the movie.

It's a good attempt, with lots of flaws & unrealistic execution; but I guess thats as good a movie you can get from Bollywood.

On the other note, people comparing it with Zero Dark Thirty & Pandey-Kumar being Scorsese-Dicaprio of India should just die !

I seriously hope you didn't mean that movie as some sort of a benchmark. Come on, that was low level propaganda, even worse than the factually incorrect and context-less Argo.

 

[tarunraju]

Spoiler alert.

The last suspense where the Arab cop has to tell the airport security whether to disembark the Indians was lifted from a Thai movie. The name escapes me. That entire act was trying to be Argo. Plenty of similar Deja-Vu moments throughout the movie.

 

[Vishwarupa]

One should appreciate Akshay Kumar for taking such a subject & executing it to perfection, not many actors in Bollywood would risk doing such subject.

Must watch movie for all but girls( Bollywood major junk of fan & movie goers) may not like it.

Hats off its a 4 star indeed!!

 

[JBH22]

Kudos to Akshay Kumar and Neeraj Pandey.

In fact we miss the Sunny deol anti pak movies

Anyways these days we all know who are the terrorist and what is their faith.

 

[Bangalorean]

Interesting comments here. Agree with @Nicky G that cultural export by Hollywood is one of the greatest things that the US has going for it. Bollywood does its share of culture propagation but that kinda happens by default - I'm pretty sure that is never part of the agenda of any Bollywood biggies. We need more classy movies on RAW, IB, insurgency operations, defence ops, etc. A few good efforts have been made (Madras Cafe etc.) but so many others fall into the trap of WKK-ism (take Ek Tha Tiger for example).

Another great genre can potentially be movies interlinked with ancient Indian heritage like Mahabharata etc. There is a crop of Indian authors who have started exploring that genre. The Mahabharata series (Mahabharata secret, Mahabharata quest, etc.) are good examples. Almost all Indians who read English books would have read the Dan Brown books like Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, etc. But hardly anyone would have heard of the Mahabharata series. The Mahabharata series books can easily be made into a movie series, and if its made well, it could contribute massively to worldwide interest in Indian heritage and culture.

But then, one needs to look at it from the movie-makers perspective. At least 40% of the movie-watching population is comprised of females, and not more than 1% of them would be interested in spy movies or RAW/IB/Defence movies. For them its all about Shah Rukh Khan, DDLJ, K3G, and such shit. Having said that, a market needs to be created for a certain genre of movies, and someone will have to bell the car. I have the feeling that it'll be a Tamil or Telugu director who will really start some kind of trend, which will then be dubbed and further taken up by Bollywood.

 

[ezsasa]

Was just watching some program with "BABY" team called "Couch with koel" or something.
interesting part is towards the end of the program during Q&A one guy stands up and says he is from Special forces and says that he was part of a team which went into enemy territory and eliminated 100 terrorists and lost about 30 men in his own team in that attack. He asks when there are live examples why don't movie makers make more realistic movies.

Assuming what that guy said is true, hafeez saeed's butt hurt is understandable because he is loosing his men on one hand and on the other hand we are not even claiming the attack. That would be pure frustration for him
Other thing to notice is that this part of the interview did not gain traction in MSM,i think it is better that way.

 

[Bangalorean]

I watched Baby today. I would rate it 5/5.

Yes, it was really a refreshing change from the usual Bollywood crap that is dished out on a constant basis. Sick of watching all the trashy Khan movies that most of our girls seem to swoon over. Sick of watching poorly made "spy stories" which are unrealistic and cringeworthy, and which inevitably have the spy dancing around trees with his woman.

This was a brilliantly executed intelligence/special ops based story. I would recommend everyone to go and watch it. And for God's sake guys - watch this in the theater. Not pirated or online. Encourage such movies, watch it in theater.
@jus, of course they have mentioned ISI and Pakistan several times. The only thing is, the person who played the character of Hafiz Saeed was named something different. He should have been actually named Hafiz Saeed in the movie, that would have been icing on the cake. But then, that's probably too much to expect.

 

[Bangalorean]

And oh - the NDTV chutiy@a who rated the movie 2.5 needs to get a kick up his arse. The person giving that review is not an unbiased reviewer. He speaks of shit like "stereotypes", "saffron tinged society", "barging into minority localities", etc. Such royal assholes should be beaten with broomsticks dipped in shit.

I hope Baby crosses the turnover of PK. But I know that's too much to hope for. Our society would pick a Khan trash like DDLJ or KKHH over Baby anyday.

 

[PredictablyMalicious]

Why do you watch bollywood movies? Indians cannot make good movies. It's just not in Indian genes.