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Baby
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Neeraj Pandey
Written by	Neeraj Pandey
Produced by	Bhushan Kumar Krishan Kumar Sheetal sharma
Starring	Akshay Kumar Danny Denzongpa Rana Daggubati Taapsee Pannu Kay Kay Menon Sushant Singh Madhurima Tuli Mikaal Zulfiqar Murali Sharma Rasheed Naz Anupam Kher
Narrated by	Danny Denzongpa
Cinematography	Sudeep Chatterjee
Edited by	Shree Narayan Singh
Music by	Songs: M. M. Keeravani Meet Bros Anjjan Background Score: Sanjoy Chowdhury
Production companies	T-Series Crouching Tiger Cape of Good Films Friday Filmworks
Distributed by	T-Series
Release date	January 23, 2015 (2015-01-23) (India)
Running time	159 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹60 crore (US$7.2 million)
Box office	₹235 crore (US$28 million)

Baby is a 2015 Indian espionage action thriller film directed by Neeraj Pandey. The film stars Akshay Kumar in the lead role, along with Danny Denzongpa, Anupam Kher, Rana Daggubati, Taapsee Pannu, Kay Kay Menon, Madhurima Tuli and Rasheed Naz in supporting roles. Made on a budget of ₹59 crore (US$7.1 million), the film released on 23 January 2015 to generally positive reviews from critics, who particularly praised the direction and Kumar's performance. As of March 2015, Baby is the second highest-grossing Hindi film of the year after Gabbar Is Back and with a worldwide gross of ₹125 crore (US$15 million). The movie's screenplay was shortlisted for Oscars Academy Library.

Plot summary

The story follows a team of fictional secret agents called Baby; which is a temporary task force headed by Feroz Khan (Danny Denzongpa). Post the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai a team of special officers is formed and they are assigned mission 'BABY'. The job is to find and eliminate terrorists who are planning attacks in various cities in India.

While attempting to rescue a fellow Indian security agent in Turkey, Ajay Singh Rajput (Akshay Kumar) captures a traitor Jamal, who formerly worked under Ajay. Ajay captures Jamal and threatens to kill his family unless he gives them the information about their terror attack plans on India. He discovers a terrorist plot to cause a bomb blast in a Delhi mall which he and Jai (Rana Daggubati) are able to prevent. In the process they learn that this was only the first, of a series of massive attacks that had been planned. Terrorist mastermind Maulana (Rasheed Naz), is causing trouble near the Pakistan-India border. He plots a daring escape plan for Bilal (Kay Kay Menon). Bilal manages to escape from prison. A team of officers is dispatched to interrogate Taufiq who is an ISI agent posing as a local leader. Ajay manages to get information on their local contacts after torturing him. They go to their hideout, but things go haywire when all of the squad members on the mission except Ajay are killed in an explosion. To collect further information from a terrorist logistics planner in Nepal, Ajay and officer Priya (Tapsee Pannu) travel to Nepal pretending to be husband and wife. Their plan to capture the terrorist Wasim Khan (Sushant Singh) goes wrong when Wasim finds out that Priya is in fact an undercover officer. Priya manages to hold Wasim and Ajay arrives to find that Priya has knocked him unconscious.

As per the information given by Wasim, Feroz sends Ajay, Jai and Shukla (Anupam Kher) to meet their deep asset Ashfaq (Mikaal Zulfiqar) in Saudi Al-Dera where Bilal is holding meetings to discuss the funding and execution of their plans. Ajay and Jai crack into Bilal's room with the help of Shukla and manage to kill Bilal. As they are about to return, they find that Maulana is also at the suite. Jai knocks him out and they decide to bring Maulana back to India, under the pretext that he is a relative who needs to visit India for an urgent liver transplant. They manage to get a visa from the local authorities for Maulana (being shown as Ashfaq's ill uncle) with Ashfaq's help. Soon after, the hotel security discover the corpse of Bilal. The Arab police authorities put the police chief Hani Mohammad (Hasan Noman) on charge of investigating the crime. He attempts to track down the murderers quickly and eventually succeeds. However, he also learns that the murderers are none other than Indian military agents who are smuggling the infamous leader, Maulana under the pretext of being Ashfaq's uncle. As soon as he learns this, he smiles and lets them escape without any hindrance. For successfully bringing in Maulana, Baby is given permanent status.

Cast

• Akshay Kumar as Ajay Singh Rajput
• Danny Denzongpa as Feroz Ali Khan
• Anupam Kher as Om Prakash Shukla
• Rana Daggubati as Jai Singh Rathore
• Taapsee Pannu as Priya Suryavanshi
• Kay Kay Menon as Bilal Khan
• Sushant Singh as Wasim Khan
• Madhurima Tuli as Anjali Singh Rajput
• Hasan Noman as Hani Mohammad, Saudi police chief
• Mikaal Zulfiqar as Ashfaq
• Murali Sharma as Mr. Gupta
• Rasheed Naz as Maulana Mohammad Saeed Rahman
• Esha Gupta Special appearance in song "Beparwah"

Production

Baby was produced under T-Series along with Crouching Tiger, Friday Filmworks and Cape of Good Films.

The filming began on September 4, 2014, in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Many shots have been taken in Gautam Buddha University, at Meditation Hall, Shanti Sarover and Library, at Greater Noida. The second part was shot in Nepal and the team completed their final schedule in Abu Dhabi in October and some parts were also shot in Istanbul.

Soundtrack

The songs for the film features songs composed by MM Keeravani and Meet Bros Anjjan. Lyrics are written by Manoj Muntashir.

The film score was composed by Sanjoy Chowdhury.

Release and reception

Critical response

Baby was released to positive reviews.

Subhash K. Jha gave the film 4.5 stars out of 5 and stated "Baby is one helluva roller-coaster ride. Miss it at your own risk." Sarita A Tanwar of Daily News and Analysis gave the movie 4 stars, describing Akshay Kumar's performance in the movie as his career-best. Anuj Kumar of The Hindu summarized the film as "A gripping espionage thriller that eschews drama and jingoism". Srijana Mitra Das of The Times of India also gave it 4 stars out of 5 and said, "Akshay Kumar is terrific as Ajay whose core of steel you can almost feel". Hindustan Times gave the movie 4 stars out of 5 too, calling the film "sleek, well-timed and engaging." Yahoo Movies gave the film 4 stars and wrote, "The film deals with a definite conflict, backs it up with a coherent plot trajectory and delivers a compelling resolution." Anupama Chopra gave the film 3.5 stars and stating that the movie will make the viewers forget Akshay's cinematic misdemeanours. Rajeev Masand gave the film 3 stars, hailing its action sequences and performance of the cast. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film 2 stars. However, Gupta praised Akshay Kumar's performance. Devesh Sharma of Filmfare praised the breathtaking action of the movie and gave it 3 stars. Ritika Handoo of Zee News hailed the movie as an entertaining movie which is a must watch. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the movie two stars calling the movie as politically dodgy in spite of being a smartly-packaged, competently shot espionage thriller. Shubha Shetty-Saha of Mid Day gave the movie 4 stars, calling it a must-watch movie. Mihir Fadnavis of Firstpost didn't give positive reviews to the plot but praised the movie as entertaining and fast-paced. Mayank Shekhar of ABP News gave 3 stars and wrote that the film manages to hold viewers attention. Abhishek Gupta of India TV said the film is "fast-paced and entertaining" and that it "goads by making a point that while America executed their plan to kill the 9/11 mastermind in Abbottabad, here our politicians could just make loud promises " about the 26/11 attacks. Bollywood Hungama praised the "exceptional" cinematography; the "extremely gripping" storyline, which makes appropriate use of the actors; the score, which "instills the necessary emotions"; and Kumar's performance. It concluded, "On the whole, Baby is one of the finest films ever made in the history of Indian cinema" and gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. R.M. Vijayakar of The New Indian Express gave 3.5 ratings calling it "that near-perfect textbook espionage thriller we have been dying to see: straight and business-like, fast-paced, without frills, and immaculately detailed to the point of occasional verbosity"

Ban in Pakistan

Baby was banned in Pakistan by the censor boards in Islamabad and Karachi, stating that "it portrays a negative image of Muslims and the negative characters in the film also have Muslim names". Pandey has stated "We have three Pakistani actors in the film. There is no Pakistan bashing and there is no jingoism towards a particular country or religion."

Box office

The worldwide boxoffice gross of Baby is ₹125 crore (US$15 million) The film started off slowly with 20–25% seating and picked up only in metro areas to about 50%. Bollywood Hungama estimated the opening day at ₹9.3 crore (US$1.1 million). International Business Times said the film had "tremendous growth" over the weekend and that its first weekend total was ₹36.07 crore (US$4.3 million).The movie total domestic collection 96.3 cr nett and declared "Plus" by koimoi.

Sequel

After the film's success, makers are planning a sequel. The film is expected to hit theatres around Republic Day in 2017.

References

1. ^ "Baby Movie Review". The Times of India. 22 January 2015.
2. ^ "'Baby' (Tuesday) 5 Days Collection at Box Office: Akshay Kumar-Starrer Racing Towards ₹100 Cr Mark". International Business TImes.
3. ^ "'Baby' Movie Review Roundup: A Must Watch Film". International Business Times.
4. "Top Worldwide Grossers 2015". Box Office India. 12 March 2015.
5. http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/akshay-kumars-babys-screenplay-shortlisted-for-oscars-academy-library/
6. "Baby Movie Review". Times Internet. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
7. "Baby: Meet the five baddies from Neeraj Pandey's film". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 Jan 2014.
8. "Akshay Kumar's 'Baby' team begins 'awesome' shoot". The Indian Express. Indian Express Limited. 4 September 2014. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
9. "'Baby' team begins 'awesome' shoot". india.com (Essel Group). 4 September 2014. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
10. "'Baby' - Miss it at your own risk (IANS Movie Review, Rating - ****1/2)". Yahoo Movies India. 23 January 2015.
11. "Film Review: 'Baby' is sensible, taut and yet completely mainstream". Daily News and Analysis.
12. "Baby review: Preventive measures". The Hindu.
13. "Baby review: New-age patriotism in a gripping thriller". Hindustan Times.
14. "Yahoo Movies Review: Baby". The Hindu.
15. "Anupama Chopra's Verdict on Baby". NDTV.
16. "'Baby' review: The film is a khichdi of influences, uneven film". CNN-IBN.
17. "'Baby' is Akshay Kumar's most credible performance". The Indian Express.
18. "Movie Review: Baby". Filmfare.
19. "'Baby' review: Kick out terrorism the Akshay Kumar way!". Zee News.
20. "Baby Movie Review". NDTV.
21. "'Baby' - Movie review". Mid Day.
22. "Baby review: Akshay Kumar's film is fast, entertaining but has a stupid plot". Firstpost. 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2015-01-29.
23. "MOVIE REVIEW: 'Baby' - Total timepass". ABP News.
24. "Baby movie review". India TV.
25. Bollywood Hungama. "Baby".
26. Vijayakar, R.M. "'Baby' Movie Review: Espionage Thriller is Gritty but Overlong". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 2015-01-29.
27. "Pakistan bans Akshay Kumar's 'Baby'". The Hindu.
28. "Cracking the code". The Hindu.
29. "Awaiting approval: 'Baby' is not an anti-Pakistan film, says Indian director". DAWN.
30. "Boxoffice". Box Office India.
31. "Boxoffice". Box Office India.
32. http://www.boxofficeindia.com/Details/art_detail/pikumayemergetopworldwidegrosserof2015#.VV0UEYuUdyw
33. BOI Staff (24 January 2015). "Baby First Day Business". Box Office India. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
34. "Box Office: Baby becomes Akshay Kumar's 9th Highest Opening Day grosser". Bollywood Hungama.
35. koimoi "Opening Weekend Box Office Collection: Akshay's 'Baby' Shows Tremendous Growth; Sonam's 'Dolly Ki Doli' Decent". International Business Times.
36. "Bollywood Top Grossers". Bollywood Hungama.
37. "Akshay Kumar and Neeraj Pandey to team up for Baby sequel". The Times of India.
38. "Varun Dhawan to work in sequel to Akshay Kumar's Baby?". Hindustan Times.

External links

• Baby at IMDb

• 2015 films
• 2010s action thriller films
• Indian films
• Indian action thriller films
• Indian thriller films
• Hindi-language films
• Films shot in Uttar Pradesh
• Films shot in Nepal
• Films shot in Istanbul
• Films about terrorism
• Music by M.M. Keeravani