What could’ve been an exhilarating thriller, with pulse-pounding moments, ends up being a run of the mill saga, courtesy a half-baked screenplay(Farhad Samji). Since Baaghi 3 goes beyond the shores of India, director Ahmed Khan and his team of writers(Sparsh Khetarpal, Tasha Bhambra, Madhur Sharma) could’ve used their imagination and packed the film with moments that would’ve made your jaws fall on your knees. Baaghi 3 is a big film in all respects - big stars, big canvas, big expenditure on VFX, big expectations. Sadly, it’s a big, big, big letdown as well.
The experience with Baaghi 3 is like, you enter a posh restaurant, waiting for a sumptuous meal to be served, but what’s served on your plate is vada-pao. Baaghi 3 takes you back to the 1970s Bollywood, when illogical situations, blood and gore, for no rhyme or reason, were the main ingredients that made the junta break into taalis. Sorry, the formula doesn’t work anymore! Seriously, what were director Ahmed Khan, Sajid Nadiadwala(story adaptation) and Farhad Samji(screenplay & dialogues) thinking when they went ahead with this apology of a script? It’s perfectly okay to pay homage to the masala films of yore, but the new interpretation has to make some sense at least. The one thing that you realize after watching Baaghi 3 is, no amount of gloss, glam and top-notch stars can ever substitute for a riveting script. Great stars, great styling and great visuals work as long as the script is great.
Farhad Samji’s screenplay is a complete mess. In fact, if at all there would be Razzies in Bollywood, Farhad Samji should be nominated proto for coming up with a slipshod, brainless and witless screenplay. What saddens your heart is the fact that Sajid Nadiadwala and Fox Star Studios, the producers of Baaghi 3, have spared no efforts in giving the film a spectacular look. The vision is perfect, but how about narrating an absorbing and attention-grabbing story?