I caught ‘Baby’ over the long weekend. Booked the tickets with some trepidation given the experience of last few ‘big ticket’ films viz. HNY, PK to name a few duds.
The first experience was a pleasant one i.e. tickets were normally priced! Now to the movie. It had a novel concept of the men / women who work selflessly behind the scenes, to safeguard our country and it’s citizens; the covert operatives from a top secret core team.
Akshay Kumar(Ajay) is in full form as the grim faced operative while Danny(Feroz) as the team leader and various actors who all have their designated roles in this tense thriller. It’s only after we came out of the theatre that we realised it’s almost 3 hour long. Not a single moment let us down as scene after scene flowed in smooth progression, with a nerve biting finale.
The basic premise is of how our intelligence tracks terror groups and pre-empts terror strikes helping save 1000s of casualties. That they never get acknowledged, is another thing, but these are men/women of a different substance – national pride, for whom, the rewards really don’t matter so long as they get to protect the country and it’s citizens.
Akshya’s persona is perfectly apt for a special ops officer and he oozes chutzpah in his role, probably his best till date.
Best scenes:
Shooting a former colleague who is badly injured beyond medical help in a foreign country
The hand to hand combat sequence with Jamal down the streets of Istanbul
Tapsee Punnu’s hand to hand combat with Sushant Singh in the hotel room
Akshay slapping Guptaji(Minister’s PA) ina very matter of fact way 5. The attention to detail with regards to completing the medical formalities to get the Pak Maulana out of KSA. Usually, these essential bits would be ignored and they would be shown winging their way home.
The vast expanses of sand dunes and winding smooth roads in the desert
The small points – letting out the air in the SUV tires before driving on the sand dunes(this is essential as with less air, the rubber footprint increases and allows better grip in the sand.
The icy nerves shown when the local cops shout out to stop just as he is getting into the lift, but turns out that they were addressing the pax ahead of him who was carrying some illicit alcohol
Some scenes that in retrospect could have been done better:
The scene showing the police van bust up in South Mumbai. All the action happening and absolutely no civilian traffic? This is a very minor flaw.
The ending credits – song. Dispensable
Madhurima Tuli(she from the now famous ad where she was the boss and her husband was a subordinate at work.) looks a bit too young to be paired with Akshay
Overall, the movie was superb, with a very tight narrative and competent acting by all the characters.
As an aside, I think one should consider the ticket pricing as an indicator to the content in a movie i.e. hiked ticket rate= dud movie. Normal ticket rates means an entertaining one…generally. At least the latter shows that the makers have some confidence in their product while the former clearly shows that they have produced a dud and want to milk it dry in the first week itself.
My rating for this ‘Baby’ is a full 4*. Wouldn’t mind watching it all over again.