“Baby” is a fast-paced and entertaining thriller from the director of ‘A Wednesday’ and ‘Special 26’, Neeraj Pandey. It contains loads of action, suspense, foreign locations, humor, but no item numbers or love stories.
An experimental covert operation run by the Indian government to root out terrorism wherever it is found is named Baby because it’s the first of its’ kind. Initially, twelve members were recruited from police and special forces. If caught, the government will deny any knowledge of them. The operation will run for five years to see if it proves valuable. The unit is in its’ final year with only a few members left. Feroz Khan (Danny Denzongpa), head of Baby, is liaison and advocate for the team with senior ministers.
In Istanbul, Ajay (Akshay Kumar) hunts down a traitor in the group who is cooperating with the terrorists to blow up a mall in New Delhi. The team is able to stop this blast, but learns there are others planned by mastermind Pakistani cleric Maulana (Rasheed Naz).
Maulana arranges for Bilal Khan (Kay Kay Menon) to escape from a Mumbai prison to carry out future attacks. In an effort to find Bilal, Ajay and another member of team, Priya (Tapsee Pannu), poise as husband and wife and travel to Kathmandu, Nepal. Their mission takes a turn for the worst when Ajay loses sight of Priya as she is meeting with one of the bad guys. In one of the most entertaining scenes in the movie, we find out that Priya can take care of herself.
The action than turns to Abu Dhabi where Ajay is joined by two team members, Jai (Rana Daggubati) a big hulk of a man, and grouchy technology wiz Shukla (Anupam Kher) who can’t stand working with Ajay.
Akshay excels in this type of role: serious and no-nonsense, agile, athletic, focused, patriotic. Even his walk and mannerisms are spot on. His understated comic timing and dry humor add lots to making this film so much fun to watch. All the other main characters were equally watchable. I especially enjoyed Tapsee Pannu as Priya, beat the snot out of one of the bad guys.
The story, also written by Neeraj Pandey, has many surprising twists and turns keeping my interest right till the end. I wish some of our real world problems could be dealt with as cleanly. The background score by Sanjoy Chowdhury enhanced the mood of suspense and tension, and Sudeep Chatterji’s cinematography gave me a real sense of Kathmandu, Istanbul, and the desert surrounding Abu Dhabi.
