Movie Reviews
Baby John Review: Varun Dhawan versus evil Santa ‘Claws’; good vibes content marred by freak flaws!
Directed by Kalees, the film also stars Jackie Shroff, Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi and Rajpal Yadav.

Published
2 months agoon
By
CB Desk
Baby John
Director: Kalees
Producers: Jio Studios, Atlee and Priya Atlee, Murad Khetani
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Jackie Shroff, Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi, Rajpal Yadav
Rating:
By Chaitanya Padukone
Traditionally Christmas movie releases belong mostly to Aamir Khan. This time ‘action-hero’ Varun Dhawan fulfills his cherished secret dream and gets a Santa Claus gift holiday release for his latest movie Baby John co-produced by Atlee (of Jawaan fame).
Generously inspired by the original Tamil film Theri (2016) directed by Atlee, his former assistant Kalees gets to step in as the debut director.
The movie Baby John which has both father (Varun) and daughter (child artiste Zara Zyanna) often calling each other “Baby” definitely has its fleeting endearing moments of tender love, emotions, and romance (Keerthy and Wamiqa). But the Merry Christmas cake has its reddish icing in the form of brutal, violent action scenes, what is termed as ‘khoon-kharaaba’.
That’s because DCP Satya Verma (Varun) confronts a vendetta-seeking Babbar Sher played by a grisly-looking Jackie Shroff. Which also threatens to hamper Satya’s marital prospects (with sweetheart Keerthy). Consequently, his professional police career which involves shoot-out encounters has death looming large over it. The revenge drama-conflict continues even after macho ‘Satya’ transforms into a Kerala-based baker John to conceal his asli identity. Interestingly ‘John’ even learns to speak snatches of Malayalam and dances gracefully with ethnic Kathakali dancers. But ‘aadat-se-majboor’ ex-cop Satya continues bashing up villains who indulge in anti-social activities.
The narrative screenplay does have its share of quirky twists and turns, some of which are quite far-fetched. While watching ‘Baby John’ one experiences sudden jump-cuts to song sequences and flash-backs and editing jolts that tend to make the movie rather disjointed and at times confusing.
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While the sound design and BGM are at times loud and jarring, it does contribute to elevating the impact of the gripping violence or tense emotional scenes, the cinematography is impressive, and outdoor countryside locales are a welcome relief. As regards the songs, except for the foot-tapping jhatak-matak song ‘Nain Matakka’ the other tracks are functional. But the tunes may not have an easy recall value for hardcore Hindi audiences. Mainly because there is a prominent Southside ethnic flavor and rhythm beats.
Definitely, a brave, earnest attempt by director Kalees in his initial debut. But this action-emotional thriller movie seems to have an invisible ‘autograph’ of his mentor-godfather Atlee in various scenes (like for instance the birds fluttering away). But the action-emotion good vibes-only (which Varun keeps saying) is marred by several freak flaws and goofy glitches in the screenplay!
While the film rightly takes a vociferous action-packed objection stand against the increasing sexual crimes against women and young girls, exploiting innocent children it also tends to deviate from the smooth flow of the original plot. While Varun Dhawan has put his best foot forward to essaying a macho action hero with multiple layers, the major redeeming attributes of ‘Baby John’ are the effortless performance of National Award-winner Keerthy Suresh and the effervescent aura of charming Wamiqa Gabbi and the endearing bonding of child artiste Zara Zyanna with Satya (alias Baby John). In one of his menacing roles, Jackie Shroff as ‘Babbar Sher’ generates a repulsive terror with his grisly looks which make an eerie impact. But they could have avoided exposing his arms and torso in the initial portions since the looks were already so powerful.
Watch this violence-mixed-with-good vibes film ‘Baby John, if you are an ardent fan of Varun Dhawan, Wamiqa, Keerthy, or Jackie Shroff. Or even Bhai-John, (oops sorry Bhai-Jaan) Salman Khan as a startling cameo in the climax with the witty punning of his dialogues. Incidentally, it’s Salman’s birthday on Dec 27 – his cameo being possibly a mini return gift to his die-hard fans.
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