The story
"Baby Do Die Do" follows Baby Karmarkar (Huma Qureshi), a deaf and mute woman who shares a modest Mumbai home with her mother and, entirely unknown to her, moonlights as a contract killer. Baby carries out hits under a paternal mentor-boss called P. M. Jain, better known as "Papa" (Chunky Pandey), whose crew in turn does the dirty work of a flamboyant builder, Zafar (Sikandar Kher), clearing away business rivals and inconvenient obstacles to his shady redevelopment deals. Beneath the gunplay runs an older wound: the childhood murder of Baby's twin sister, a trauma that quietly shapes everything she does.
Tonally the film is a deliberate genre-bender. It is billed as an assassin thriller, but Samant laces the violence with deadpan dark comedy, a tentative romance with a suitor named Sidhu, and a streak of absurdism, so it lands somewhere between action, black comedy and neo-noir. Several critics singled out Mumbai itself as the film's true protagonist, a city rendered as a wet, perpetually-under-construction dystopia where old identities are bulldozed to make way for glass towers. In keeping with the editorial note, Huma Qureshi genuinely headlines the piece, on screen in almost every frame.
Making of the film
The film was directed by Nachiket Samant from a screenplay credited to Jasmeet K. Reen, Samant, Gaurav Sharma and Parveez Shaikh. It was produced under the Saleem Siblings banner, the outfit of real-life siblings Huma Qureshi and Saqib Saleem, together with Pune-04 Picture, with Qureshi herself among the producers. Tojo Xavier handled cinematography and the film runs a lean 125 minutes.
Craft is central to the film's appeal. Samant leans into a "sensory swagger" of visual devices, black-and-white flashbacks, split-screens, reversed CCTV footage, on-screen phone messages, voice notes and subtitles that turn a silent protagonist's world into something legible and stylish. The colour red recurs as a motif throughout. "Baby Do Die Do" opened in cinemas on 3 July 2026, distributed theatrically by Cinépolis.
Performances
The performance everyone came away talking about is Huma Qureshi's. She plays Baby without a single line of spoken dialogue, communicating entirely through posture, stillness and the eyes, and she prepared by working with a sign-language expert for months. In interviews she described having to "unlearn" her acting instincts, noting that once you remove the voice, "the body never lies" and everything else becomes louder. Reviewers widely called it among the most accomplished turns of her career.
The supporting bench gives the film its texture. Chunky Pandey is warm and menacing by turns as the paternal handler "Papa," while Sikandar Kher clearly relishes his role as the eccentric, camera-aware villain Zafar. Seema Pahwa, Vidya Malvade, Himanshu Malik and Rachit Singh round out the ensemble, and Saqib Saleem, Qureshi's brother and co-producer, turns up in a cameo dance number.
Music
The score and songs, composed by Arjun Iyer, drew some of the film's warmest notices, with critics calling the music department "surprisingly splendid." In a movie built around a heroine who cannot hear, the soundtrack does unusually heavy lifting, setting mood and rhythm where dialogue would normally sit.
The music also carries the film's sense of humour. One of its most talked-about touches is a wedding song cheekily titled "Mutual Funds Are Subject to Market Risk," a riff on the ubiquitous Indian investment disclaimer, deployed for absurd comic effect, alongside a punchy title track.
Reception
Reviews on release were mixed-to-positive, generally landing in the 2.5-to-3.5-stars-out-of-5 range. Bollywood Hungama awarded three stars and summed up the consensus, praising the film's stylish execution, quirky characters, unexpected twists and, above all, Qureshi's central performance. Publications from The Quint to The Hollywood Reporter India applauded the film as a slick, subversive spin on the urban-assassin genre.
The reservations were fairly consistent too: some critics felt the first half was stretched before the narrative tightened after the interval, and that the big late-film reveals were telegraphed rather than genuinely surprising. Even the more lukewarm notices, however, tended to agree that the film's style, its use of Mumbai, and its silent leading lady made it stand apart from the standard action-thriller pack.
Key details
| Release year | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Language | Hindi |
| Director | Nachiket Samant |
| Genre | Action / Comedy |
| Starring | Huma Qureshi, Sikandar Kher, Chunky Panday |
Did you know?
- The title is a piece of wordplay on the heroine's Maharashtrian surname: "Baby Karmarkar" becomes "Baby Do-Die-Do," mirroring the syllables Kar-Mar-Kar.
- Huma Qureshi does not speak a single line of dialogue in the entire film, performing the deaf-mute assassin Baby purely through expression, posture and sign language after months of training with a sign-language expert.
- The film was produced under "Saleem Siblings," the banner of real-life siblings Huma Qureshi and Saqib Saleem; Qureshi is a credited producer and Saqib appears in a cameo dance number.
- One song is cheekily titled "Mutual Funds Are Subject to Market Risk," borrowing the famous Indian investment disclaimer and scoring a wedding sequence for absurd comic effect.
- Critics repeatedly described Mumbai itself, a city of perpetual construction and redevelopment, as the film's real "protagonist."
- The film runs a tight 125 minutes and was released theatrically on 3 July 2026, distributed by Cinépolis, with music composed by Arjun Iyer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who directed Baby Do Die Do and when was it released?
Baby Do Die Do was directed by Nachiket Samant and released in cinemas on 3 July 2026. It is a Hindi-language film produced under the Saleem Siblings and Pune-04 Picture banners and distributed theatrically by Cinépolis.
Does Huma Qureshi speak in Baby Do Die Do?
No. Qureshi plays Baby Karmarkar, a deaf and mute assassin, and does not have a single line of spoken dialogue in the film. She trained with a sign-language expert for months and conveys the entire character through her eyes, stillness and body language.
Is Baby Do Die Do a comedy or a thriller?
It is a deliberate genre-bender. At its core it is an action-driven assassin thriller, but Samant threads it with dark, absurdist comedy, a romance and a stylish neo-noir texture, which is why it is often described as a genre-bending action comedy-thriller.
Who plays the villains in Baby Do Die Do?
Chunky Pandey plays P. M. Jain, or "Papa," Baby's paternal mentor and handler, while Sikandar Kher plays the flamboyant builder Zafar, the film's chief antagonist. Kher's eccentric, camera-aware villain drew particular praise from reviewers.
Is Baby Do Die Do based on a true story?
No, it is an original screenplay, credited to Jasmeet K. Reen, Nachiket Samant, Gaurav Sharma and Parveez Shaikh. The story of a silent Mumbai contract killer haunted by her twin sister's murder is fiction, though it is grounded in a very real, recognisable portrait of the city.
How was Baby Do Die Do received by critics?
Reviews were mixed-to-positive, generally in the 2.5-to-3.5-star range, with near-universal praise for Huma Qureshi's silent lead performance and the film's stylish craft. The main criticisms were that the first half felt stretched and that the late plot twists were somewhat predictable.