Baby John Movie Cast/Actors: Varun Dhawan, Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi, Jackie Shroff, Rajpal Yadav, Sanya Malhotra, Sheeba Chaddha, Salman Khan (Cameo) & Others
Baby John Movie Director: Kalees
Baby John Movie Production House: A For Apple Studios (Atlee), Cine 1 Studios, Jio Studios & Vipin Agnihotri Films
Baby John Movie Release Date: 25th December, 2024
Baby John Movie Available On: Theatrical Release and (likely to be released on Amazon Prime Video OTT Platform)
Baby John Movie Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
Baby John Movie Runtime: 2h 41m
Baby John Movie Critic Review:
“Papa, I want a lal batti gaadi and people to salute me. I want to be a minister,” says a goon with a nose stud to his grotesque dad.
He gets it on a platter.
In the wake of last year’s Jawan and this year’s Pushpa, the fondly-held theory that south Indian filmmakers have cracked the box-office code, gets busted with writer-director Kalees’ remake of Atlee’s 2016 Tamil film Theri.
The exhausting plot in two sentences: fearless IPS officer DCP Satya Verma (Varun Dhawan) is on a collision course when he takes on gruesomely repulsive gangster Babbar Sher (Jackie Shroff) and kills his criminal son. The same one who wanted a lal batti gaadi and maims, tortures and sets on fire, helpless young girls.
In the aftermath of the bloodbath that ensues, Satya flees to protect his little daughter Khushi (Zara Zyanna), changes his identity and tries to live in peaceful anonymity. But crime and their perpetrators are never far behind.
If the story sounds time-worn, Kalees’ making is so outdated that last week’s Vanvaas would seem modern in comparison.
Remember the garage scene in Deewaar where Amitabh Bachchan downs the shutters and beats the baddies to a pulp? Satya does it in a classroom topped with humour as flat as a dosa.
There’s even a cliffhanger of a school bus, a scene that’s been a consistent cinematic shot right from The Italian Job (1969).
From Mumbai to Alappuzha in Kerala, the trafficking of young girls and their cruel abuse is the main crime syndicate that Satya the one-man army battles.
But Kalees stuffs in an annoyingly precocious child, a mother (Sheeba Chaddha) who forces Satya to go girl-hunting and puns on candy crush for humour, romance without sparkle with Dr Meera (Keerthy Suresh) having a showdown with Satya over chashma and shades and wanting marriage with the DCP from their very first meeting, Meera introducing him to her father who hates policemen, a childish scene between Meera and Satya’s mom, a schoolteacher called Tara (Wamiqa Gabbi) who is also known as Adhira. It is an endless list of non-entertainment as Kalees takes a tortuous route before Satya finally nails the main criminal and tears apart the syndicate.
Add to it Thaman S’s music that no ear would welcome. ‘Bandobast’, ‘Gudda-guddi’ at a baby shower with close-ups of a jhumka, ‘Nain mataka’ and ‘Mere kareeb’ with Meera wearing an array of unbecoming costumes, sad BG songs like ‘Sukhe sukhe nain’ at the funeral of one of the many abused girls. Not one number is either a musical pleasure or elegantly picturised or indeed, well placed. Like the rest of Kalees’ illogical storytelling, humour, action, romance, emotion and music fall like nine pins all over the place.
The biggest drawback is the casting. Varun Dhawan just doesn’t have the charisma or the skills to pull off Satya like Vijay did in Tamil. Unable to carry the enforced cool quotient in all his scenes, Varun is horribly miscast. Keerthy Suresh does not impress in performance or appearance and Jackie Shroff’s character is more sickening than menacing. But when a film has even Rajpal Naurang Yadav (Satya’s constable) getting a whole monologue and meltdown over the victims, their izzat and rape, topped with a scene where he’s the tough, unyielding cop facing a roomful of gangsters, miscasting and misdirection are mild words.
Perhaps the only one with spunk is Wamiqa Gabbi who, unfortunately, has a role that makes no sense.
By the way, Salman Khan coming in at the end is getting to be tedious.
Baby John – Watch Or Not?: Sing a few carols and eat plum cake. Baby John won’t add any cheer to your Christmas.
Baby John Review Score Rating: 1 out of 5 (i.e. 1/5)
Baby John Movie Official Trailer:
Credits: JioStudios
Read on Lehren - Baby John Movie Review: Baby Face Horribly Miscast
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