Baby

About the film

Baby is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language spy action thriller film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. It is the first instalment of Baby franchise. It stars Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Rana Daggubati, Danny Denzongpa, Taapsee Pannu, Kay Kay Menon, Mikaal Zulfiqar, Madhurima Tuli and Rasheed Naz. Named after a fictional elite team of the Indian Intelligence system, it follows the team's perpetual strife to eliminate terrorists and their plots, during which an officer leads a team to destroy one such potentially lethal operation.

Baby marked Pandey's third feature film endeavour as a writer and director, as well as his third with Kher after A Wednesday! (2008) and Special 26 (2013), which also marked his maiden collaboration with Kumar. Filming began on 4 September 2014 in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. It was shot in Gautam Buddha University, Nepal, Abu Dhabi and Istanbul. The film was one of the most anticipated of the year. Its theatrical trailer was released on 4 December 2014.

Plot

A temporary task force headed by Feroz Ali Khan is formed in response to the 26/11 attacks in India, the job being to find and eliminate terrorists planning attacks in India. While attempting to rescue a fellow secret agent in Turkey, Ajay Singh Rajput captures a former colleague-turned-traitor, Jamaal. Frightened, Ajay threatens to have his family killed unless he provides the information about a terror attack plan. Jamaal tells Ajay about a plot to carry out a bomb blast in a Delhi shopping mall, which Ajay is able to prevent with help from Jai. Jamaal then taunts Ajay saying that this was only the first of a series of massive attacks that the terrorists had planned and commits suicide.

Pakistan-based terrorist mastermind Maulana Mohammed Abdul Rehman is causing trouble near the India-Pakistan border. He plans an escape plan for Bilal Khan, a dangerous terrorist lodged in a prison in Mumbai. For this purpose, Bilal assigns another terrorist Javed Ali Khan who arrives in Mumbai via Dubai. Soon after, Bilal escapes from police custody and flees the country. The Indian agencies are alerted to Javed's arrival and a team of ATS officers, led by Ajay, is dispatched to interrogate Taufiq, an ISI agent posing as a local Muslim leader. Ajay manages to get information on Javed after torturing Taufiq and raids Javed's hideout. However, things go haywire when all the officers except Ajay get killed along with Javed after the latter triggers a suicide explosion.

The agency is able to retrieve the remains of Javed's laptop and find a name from the hard drive: Wasim Sheikh, a logistics planner for the terrorist groups, living in Nepal under the name of Abdul Haq. Ajay and Shabana Khan travel to Nepal pretending to be a married couple. Their plan to capture Wasim goes awry when he finds out that Shabana is a covert operative. However, Shabana fights with him and knocks him unconscious and the duo bring Wasim back to India. Afraid of the torture that he might face, Wasim reveals all the information that the agency wants. He tells them that Bilal is in Al-Dera in Saudi Arabia and will travel to Karachi to launch a lethal attack on numerous locations in India.

Production

Baby was produced under T-Series along with Crouching Tiger, Friday Filmworks and Cape of Good Films. The filming began on 4 September 2014, in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Some filming was done in Gautam Buddha University, at Meditation Hall, Shanti Sarover and Library, at Greater Noida. The second part was shot in Nepal and the team completed their final schedule in Abu Dhabi in October. Some parts were also shot in Istanbul. Sajjad Delafrooz was hired to play the role of the Saudi doctor.

Soundtrack

The songs for the film features songs composed by M. M. Kreem and Meet Bros Anjjan. Lyrics were written by Manoj Muntashir.

The film score was composed by Sanjoy Chowdhury.

Reception

Baby received positive reviews from critics who praised Kumar's performance, action sequences, direction and writing.

Subhash K. Jha gave the film 4.5 stars out of 5 and stated,"Baby is one helluva roller-coaster ride. Miss it at your own risk." Sarita A Tanwar of Daily News and Analysis gave the movie 4 stars, describing Akshay Kumar's performance in the movie as his career-best. Anuj Kumar of The Hindu summarized the film as "A gripping espionage thriller that eschews drama and jingoism". Srijana Mitra Das of The Times of India also gave it 4 stars out of 5 and said, "Akshay Kumar is terrific as Ajay whose core of steel you can almost feel". Hindustan Times gave the movie 4 stars out of 5 too, calling the film "sleek, well-timed and engaging." Yahoo Movies gave the film 4 stars and wrote, "The film deals with a definite conflict, backs it up with a coherent plot trajectory and delivers a compelling resolution." Anupama Chopra gave the film 3.5 stars and stating that the movie will make the viewers forget Akshay's cinematic misdemeanours. Rajeev Masand gave the film 3 stars, hailing its action sequences and performance of the cast. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film 2 stars. However, Gupta praised Akshay Kumar's performance. Devesh Sharma of Filmfare praised the breathtaking action of the movie and gave it 3 stars. Ritika Handoo of Zee News hailed the movie as an entertaining movie which is a must-watch. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the movie two stars calling it politically …

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