The final nail is the incessant, annoying background music. It blares non-stop and makes this film even longer than it is.
Naam Shabana leaves you with a niggling question: why create a heroine in the action hero mode, with both mind and heart, and then give her a big bro to ‘help’ her out? This results in second-guessing your biggest asset, wondering if she is a liability.

Naam Shabana is well intended but is unable to take flight due to poor writing.

Skip the film if you want to watch it for Neeraj Pandey’s previous filmography. Naam Shabana is nothing like his other films.

The film could have been better paced, all thanks to the under-cooked narrative. Naam Shabana is a throw away effort from director Shivam Nair and producer Neeraj Pandey, where the only saving grace is Taapsee’s act.

Naam Shabana is a sleek film, that unfolds at a wonderfully breakneck speed. It’s crisp with no shoo-sha like my colleague Rajesh predicted.

Naam Shabana, for all its avowed aspirations, it rarely ventures beyond the trite and tested. Watch it only if standard-fare action dramas do not put you off.

It’s all about girl power and that’s enough to make this a one-time watch.

Naam Shabana falls short of becoming a la Baby. A tepid script makes this film a strictly a average watch.

While in Baby, the climax is almost nail-biting, Naam Shabana makes it all too easy to get rid of the bad guy. If you want to watch Naam Shabana, do; just make sure you don’t go in with the expectation of watching a riveting action-thriller like Baby.

Pandey has written this prequel, split into two totally separate films. And to be fair when the movie does cut to the chase eventually, to chase down the villain, some of the thrills do kick in. Sadly you’ve polished off your popcorn tub already, taking in the corniness until that point, while your head spins in circles in this pointless spin-off, listening to the zany ‘Zubi zubi zubi’ number from Mithun’s ‘Dance Dance’ (1987), and so much else.

Naam Shabana is a better film than Baby. It has a more polished appearance, and the idiotic bad guy here is at least less idiotic than the amateurs in the earlier film.

Naam Shabana is a spinoff backstory of one of the characters from the successful film ‘Baby,’ the story is a tad too obvious, but the action sequences redeem the film.

‘Naam Shabana’ is not name worthy enough to match up to the potential of ‘Baby’. It has some brilliant fight scenes and good performance along with a lost opportunity.

Watch Naam Shabana purely for Taapsee Pannu’s fine performance and Akshay Kumar’s enjoyable cameo, and also if you loved Baby too much. Just don’t go into theatre expecting another quality stuff like Baby, even if the movie forces us to draw comparisons.

…the pace of the film could have been forgiven. But, it is difficult to forgive no pounding hearts in a thriller. When the protagonist feels too safe, nothing can make you worry about her, can it?

Naam Shabana is a major letdown especially when you walk into the theatre halls carrying good ol’ Baby nostalgia and expecting a similar adrenaline rush. In a nutshell, we would prefer to settle for a rewatch of the 2015 espionage-thriller instead!

‘Naam Shabana’ offers a fair treat in the form of the actors but somewhere fails to leave its mark like the sequel. The slow pace of the story-line and the dialogues can be blamed for this let down. Filled with action and only action, the film is highly recommended ONLY for all the ardent followers of Akshay Kumar and Taapsee Pannu as well. And of course for the vivid fans of the sequel ‘Baby.’