“Baabarr” releasing without any pre release hype or heavy promotions, comes out to be a marginally decent watch in parts. Looking at the promos of this unknown movie, you find three known names featuring in it as Mithun Chakraborty, Om Puri and Sushant Singh. And refreshingly all three deliver worth watching performances, taking the movie to a much better level than expected.
But annoyingly, “Baabarr” keeps on moving between two ends of quality and mediocrity constantly during its two hours of duration. At one end, it offers few sequences which are immensely impressive and well handled by the director Ashu Trikha, whereas on the other, it also has scenes which simply force you to just go for a break.
The movie is highly violent and brutal showing a lot of bloodshed with numerous murders and shoot outs. Though it has some gripping moments and power packed performances in store, but sadly talks about the same gang war drama seen several times before on the screen. The script has nothing new to offer as it revolves around the rotten plot of a young boy growing in the surroundings of crime and becoming a big gangster in his youth, only to get killed by the police in a fake encounter. But it’s the direction, action and cinematography in the movie which keeps on impressing the viewer at regular intervals of time throughout. Especially the original outdoor locations and the racy chase sequences shot beautifully by the DOP.
The initial 20 minutes of the film, depicting the transformation of a young boy into a big gangster are undoubtedly the best moments of this intense crime drama. As you watch the first murder committed by the young “Baabarr”, you feel like it’s going to be a great explosive watch (as if an Indian "City of God"). However the director fails to maintain the electrifying pace generated by its superb opening, resulting in just an average product later on. In few words, “Baabarr” starts from a higher level and then slides down to the same old path, reducing the overall impact of the movie to a great extent.
The best performance comes once again from the veteran actor, Om Puri, who skillfully delivers a polished act of a corrupt police officer with conviction. Mithun Da shines bright in the role of an encounter specialist SP. Sushant Singh as Baabarr’s rival gangster is superb in his few scenes. The debutant Sohum Shah playing Baabarr, tries hard and puts all his efforts to do full justice to his role but doesn’t have the killer looks of “Bhiku Mhatrey” in his eyes. The passion and aggression seen in Manoj Bajpai’s act is completely missing here. Tinnu Anand, Shakti Kapoor and Mukesh Tiwari excel in their brief parts. Urvashi Sharma also does much better than her previous projects. Musically, out of the two songs incorporated in the script, I think the Qawwali track should have been used more, as it sounded quite catchy and lyrical in its brief version.
Summing up, where director Ashu Trikha had everything in place for his big project, yet I couldn’t understand why he chose such a jaded subject for his movie. He ineffectively tries to cover up the poorly written script with his competent direction, but fails to emerge as a winner because the viewer has already seen everything shown in the movie in far superior products such as “Satya”, “Company” and more. So, I wish him all the luck for his next project. As far as his “Baabarr” is concerned, it may fetch better results in the smaller centers and single screen theaters out of the metros.
Rating : 2 / 5 (with an extra mention of its superb starting moments.)
