Neeraj Pandey's 'Baby' is an edge-of-the-seat spy thriller which will keep you thrilled throughout the running time. The film doesn't have the heft of originality which 'Special 26' had as a speciality, but it's a film that's as much entertaining. Akshay Kumar is in a raw form here- and it might be his most gripping, heroic performance. Taapsee Pannu makes an assured debut. Watch her as she kicks the butt of the enemies. There are many such bits on screens, and these bits make you glued to the screens. It's an immensely enjoyable and entertaining film which has a concrete- if not coherent- script. But most importantly, it's weakness isn't jingoism.

The Republic Day on a Monday inevitably meant that the film makers had an extended weekend to take advantage of & Neeraj Pandey's "Baby", which deals with espionage seemed an apt choice. There was a palpable sense of anticipation after all Neeraj had wowed the audience previously with "A Wednesday" & "Special Chabbis". Even the promos of his latest aroused curiosity, as it seemed like a slickly executed movie. So will it live upto the standard of its predecessors???

Baby is an undercover intelligence agency that was formed with the intention to curb the rising acts of terrorism. Ever since its inception, it's highly skilled agents have foiled countless attempts of the militants who were keen to unleash a reign of terror across the nation. Feroze Ali Khan (Danny Denzongpa) was the Chief of Baby & Ajay (Akshay Kumar) was his ace among the agents. The film unfolds with Ajay negating the threat posed by a double agent & in the process, unearths the truth that the dreaded terrorist, Bilaal (Kay Kay Menon) facing trial in the Indian jail was likely to be rescued. All of this was done under the orders of the Pakistan's terror outfit, Lashkar whose leader was Maulana Mohammad Rehman (Rashid Naz). So can Ajay & his fellow agents rise to the biggest challenge that they had ever faced???

Neeraj Pandey credentials needs no introduction as he has already proved it beyond doubt with his previous two ventures. In his latest offing, he has gone for a much larger scale as the characters trot across the globe in their mission to bring the offenders to justice with some impressively executed stunt sequences. However, unlike his other movies; the plot lacks the tautness or reality that you would expect from him as some of the scenes seem too far fetched be it Bilaal's escape or the rather lack of professionalism on the part of the terrorists.. But even then, I thoroughly enjoyed it as the latter half really hooks the audience with some edge of the seat sequences which kinda reminded me of "Argo". As for the technical aspects, the visuals by Sudeep Chatterjee was fantastic along with the action sequences choreographed by Cyril Raffaelli and Abbas Ali Moghul. Even the BGM by Sanjay Chowdhury deserves praise while the editing by Shree Narayan Singh was crisp.

Akki was fantastic as the undercover agent & seemed every bit convincing be it with his stunts or his suave nature. Danny Denzongpa imparted the sense of seriousness that you would associate with such a character. Inspite of appearing towards the latter half of the movie, Anupam Kher provides the hilarious moments in his own characteristic manner. Rashid Naz was menacing while Kay Kay Menon didnt have much to do. Among the rest, Rana Duggabatti was imposing with his bulky frame while Tapsee Pannu steals the scene in her brief appearance.

Verdict: The previous track record of Neeraj would ensure a credible initial, however it wont cater to the masses as such. The plot is pretty average as it does have some notable loopholes & seems far fetched at times, but still it was brilliantly executed & keeps you hooked for sure. In short, check it out !!!

Rating: 3.75/5

Regards...Ben

This May Be Considered Akshay Kumar's Best Movie Ever.Great Story, Good Execution And Akshay At His Best, Though It Loses Pace Sometimes But That Don't Effect Much

I like Neeraj Pandey's stories. His A Wednesday! (2009) is a masterpiece and Special 26 (2013) a good satire. Baby is good, but not great. But consider it as 2015's first watchable film.

The opening credits serve as a prologue which tells us that an Indian elite squad (codenamed BABY because of their martial infancy) is sent out to infiltrate huts of terrorism around the world so as to prevent any act of terrorism in India (and/or elsewhere, but let us focus on the exclusive Indian patriotism here). Ajay (Akshay Kumar), a father of two, is the skipper of this squad and mostly acts as a one-man army. Basically, this squad carries out unofficial surgical operations outside India. The story starts to make sense only after you are successfully pulled inside the plot which maneuvers between places around India and the world.

A brawny first half will make you uncomfortable with some boring sequences that will surely raise few questions on the editor. The humor is destructive rather than constructive as the audience awaits a dose of real thrills. There are one or two scenes that MAY make you feel good from a spectator's perspective, but trust me it looks cooked. Enter second half and greet Anupam Kher in his appreciable performance as a quirky strategist. The pace catches up in the last forty minutes and if it were not for these crucial minutes, I am positive the film may have never come out its self-inflicted sabotage.

The plot is ambitious and no wonder Pandey has sampled some real life events into his story. They work and as far as an unsuspecting viewer is concerned, it all goes well. If you dig deeper, the narrative has nothing substantial to deliver. Yes we talk about killing these mercenaries before they plan another attack. But when every other bad guy dies prematurely, the fun quotient drains. And that is what happens in Baby. It is all so simple yet so difficult.

Denzongpa and Kumar are good, not great. I somehow missed Daggubati; Kumar's actress (from that seemingly sexist Airtel ad) had more screen-space than him. The dialogs are funny and the one thing that really works for the film is the combination of drama and humor that goes hand-in-hand with all those weighty happenings. Even if you start to wonder where the thrills are, the witty dialogs will take care of you. The raw sequences of interrogation and infiltration dictates your attention.

While the photography is good, the cinematography is below average. Direction is the usual Pandey, nothing to talk about. There is some good writing in here (a la A Wednesday!) but otherwise Baby is a slightly exaggerated drama. The namesake stunts are punchy and as the story turns to the climax, you will surely feel a satisfaction that if not in reality, a fictional India is doing something bold and not busy promoting superficial campaigns like Swachch Bharat & Make In India.

BOTTOM LINE: Baby is a tasty dish for our palates, but it ends up being more of a meaty affair than an intellectual thril

A film dedicated to the heroes of our country, who actually don’t die for the country but live for the country so that no one can harm our country. It is Neeraj Pandey’s film (Wednesday fame). Though the name of the movie is ‘baby’ it is not at all a child’s game. Another brilliant movie from Neeraj Pandey. Danny (Feroze Ali Khan) heads a special operations wing of commandoes, which is running in its trial period of 5 years with the name Baby. They had picked up 12 people from paramilitary forces. They could avert lots of terrorist attacks. Baby is the story of their last operation. The movie begins with Danny’s narration. Akshay (Ajay) is in a foreign land trying to get one of his peers saved from the anti-social elements. On knowing that another peer had betrayed them, he extracts confessions from him and averts a terrorist attack at DLF Promenade mall in Delhi. Then the effort starts to reach to the master mind behind ‘all the Diwali’ planned. There enters into the scene Kay Kay Menon, who is in the jail as a suspect in one of the bomb blast, but manages to flee with the support of his people. It is interesting to see, how Akshay with his team under the command of Danny reaches the master-mind. Tapasee is part of his team for part of the project. The second half of the movie is more intriguing than the first half where Anupam Kher (Shuklaji) and Rana Dagubatti join Akshay for the sequences shot in the desert escapades of Abudhabi. It is so painful to see the uncertainty in the life of such officers involved in the covert operations. Madhurima plays the role of Akshay’s wife. As per the protocol, Akshay can’t even share hois job profile with his family, and so cooks up some conference stories everytime when he is back after some operation. Madhurima tells him only one thing: Bas marna mat. Neeraj Pandey has taken a very non-biased and non-judgmental approach towards handling this movie. Although, certain scenes are there which raised a question mark in me, whether it is possible to conduct secret operations to this extent where these secret agents enter into another country, extract confessions and leads from suspects etc. May be, secret agents get the right to work in such fashion also. There are certain other scenes which need a special mention and highlight is: Danny tells a senior minister in the beginning of the film that the government ought to win the confidence of Muslim community is India, for Pakistan is taking advantage of the community’s sense of alienation within India. In another scene, Akshay during his interrogation of an ISI agent Taufeek, Taufeek says that he writes ‘MUSALMAN’ in all caps in religion column. Responding to that Akshay tells him his story of defending a Muslim family during Gujarat Riots and why he puts ‘INDIAN’ in the religion column in all the forms that he fills. It says terrorists don’t have a religion and no particular community ought to be associated.Baby-Grand Salute to the unsung heroes of our country.

Neeraj Pandey is one of the most reliable director in bollywood, who has earned this position only with his two directed bollywood films. Meanwhile, he has done screenwriting for well intended but mediocre bengali movie ‘The Royal Bengal Tiger‘ and below average ‘Total Siyappa’. His latest work, espionage thriller ‘Baby‘ is one of the most anticipated bollywood film of 2015 and rightly so.

Baby is poor man’s Argo meets Zero dark thirty. Laced with good jingoistic dialogues, having heart at its place, and Akshay kumar back to his action character with sensible but average script, Baby is well intentioned movie but not well made. Akshay Kumar stars as special officer agent Ajay whose skill is like poor man’s Liam Neeson from Taken series, who works in experimental counter-intelligence team named as ‘Baby’ in the wake of 26/11 blast in Mumbai city.

Terrorist Bilal (played in cameo role by Kay Kay Menon) escapes from police van after his trial on one of the busiest road in mumbai, which surprisingly had ‘no traffic’, and no back up team available, huh, was not that too convenient. Movie is set into motion after escape of Bilal and hinted major terror attack in India. It triggers the chain of events set against the clock that promises some good foot chase scenes, hand to hand combat action, gritty cold blooded murder.

Akshay Kumar has been perfectly casted and surprisingly this is his one of the better leading performance in long time, too long time. Unfortunately, this is weakest ‘directed’ film of Pandey which inspite of having potential of turning this into gold, it fails due to poor editing, half baked first half, not so engaging but long foot chase scenes and some silly ideas done hastily that makes it more heroic movie than humanistic and realistic. Even the tense scene sometimes fall flat. Said that, it should be seen once where Akshay kumar cold heartedly slaps everyone as it is his habit, for few intense scenes, good to brilliant performance by everyone and rare to see nail biting climax in bollywood.

This is an another brilliance by Neeraj Pandey and his team,another a good movie by Akshay Kumar on the topic of Terrorism...I'll not spoil the fun by telling the story...So just go and watch it in the theaters...