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This is no do or die effort: after all, it is actor Saqib Saleem’s as well as co-producer Nachiket Samant’s debut production. But their ambition should have been loftier, and they should have ensured that a dark comedy like this should have, to begin with, a far more attractive title.
This title is only given because the protagonist Baby’s surname is the Marathi name Karmarkar, which in Hindi and Marathi translates as Do-die-do (Kar-Mar-Kar). And that gives a wrong impression of the movie, especially by way of its content. Do I almost hear a filmgoer coming to know of the title and asking, “Is that a new children’s film?” Wouldn’t blame that person, really!
My next point—a very vital one!—is that dark comedies, unless star-studded, have a niche audience and so the film, if it had to be released theatrically, needed much more real-time promotion. Of course, the ideal route, especially in these callous times when theatre chains behave like dictators, would have been the OTT one, where we have even seen undeserving dark comedies being appreciated alongside the deserving ones like Inspector Zende, Darlings and Lootcase.
And Baby… is definitely in the latter group. It is quite a compelling narrative, way ahead of the dismal Taapsee Pannu 2022 calamity, Blurr that had ‘two Taapsees.’ This time, Huma is solo, but the surviving solo of twins Baby and Didi, of whom Baby is deaf-mute. Didi, however, is murdered because Baby and she have witnessed a murder as children. Baby, the deaf-mute one, escapes.
When Baby is escaping from the masked killer, she encounters Papa alias P.M. Jain (Chunky Pandey), who helps her in recovering from her trauma. Soon, she also encounters Siddhu (Rachit Singh), a music teacher who falls for her and they get married.
Baby’s mother (Mangala Kenkre) is a whimsical and cantankerous woman. Baby now works as a hit-woman for Papa, who is also involved with rogue builders Zafar (Sikander Kher) and Lucky (Arun Khushwah) and gets most of his assignments from them. Baby has a loaded umbrella that fires bullets silently.
Baby works without being suspected thanks to her unique weapon even after marriage to Siddhu. Meanwhile, in one murder case, police officer Anjum Khan (Seema Pahwa) begins to suspect Baby (who she has met once) due to a very strange coincidence. And one day, Siddhu comes to know the truth about his all-innocent wife. Baby now tells Papa she does not want to be a killer any more. What (all) happens next?
Tightly scripted (Jasmeet Kaur Reen, Nachiket Samant and Parveez Shaikh), with a runtime of just over two hours, the film is ably directed by Nachiket Samant. Of the twists in the end, two are quite predictable, but the last one is a whopper.
The film has an interesting soundtrack of about 10 songs, many of which have pithy lyrics (especially Kaun hai wohand Alpha Q). Most of the songs (by Arjun Iyer, who has also written most of the lyrics) are catchy while they last. His background score is apt.
Huma Qureshi puts in a delightfully underplayed and skilled performance, and Chunky Pandey is superb as Papa, ditto Mangala Kenkre in the brief role of Baby’s mother. Sikandar Kher, after 24, shows that he is a rather limited actor in another negative role. His performance is similar, though the role is vastly different. Rachit Singh as Siddhu and Seema Pahwa as Anjum Khan are fabulous. Marudhar Shekhawat as Manu is excellent.
Rupesh Bane as Faizu, Karan Dave as Goli, Arun Khushwah as Lucky, Samara Vijay as Baby and Didi (she is also the narrator) do well.
This is a definite addition to the list of delectable dark comedies we have got to watch in Hindi cinema. The ironies are tangy too: the film has “clashed” at release point with Alia Bhatt’s Alpha, a film that has her playing an assassin as well. The movie also has a song called Alpha Q (which features co-producer and Huma’s brother Saqib Saleem in a striking song cameo) and is co-written by Jasmeet Kaur Reen, writer-director of Alia Bhatt’s maiden directorial, Darlings!
Rating: ***1/2
Saleem Siblings’ & Pune-04 Picture LLP’s Baby Do Die Do Produced by: Saqib Saleem, Huma Qureshi & Nachiket Samant Directed by: Nachiket Samant Written by: Jasmeet Kaur Reen, Nachiket Samant & Parveez Sheikh Music: Arjun Iyer Starring: Huma Qureshi, Chunky Pandey, Rachit Singh, Sikandar Kher, Seema Pahwa, Marudhar Shekhawat, Himanshu Malik, Rupesh Bane, Karan Dave, Arun Khushwah, Samara Vijay, Mangala Kenkre & others
