Baby John, one big yawn

‘Baby John’ has all the trappings of a mass entertainer, having been produced by Atlee, the record-maker ‘Jawan’ director whose remake of Tamil film ‘Their’ it is. Headlined by a fairly bankable star, Varun Dhawan, who can certainly act, he does try to energise the proceedings. South Indian sensation Keerthy Suresh is making her Bollywood debut and yesterday’s ‘Hero’ Jackie Shroff plays the vilest of vile badman. On the side is the beautiful and talented Wamiqa Gabbi.

Yet, as ‘Baby John’ goes on and on, often all over the place, it ends up as a trap. Yes, the start is kind of cute. A father-daughter jodi, John (Varun Dhawan) and his precocious daughter Khushi’s (Zara Zyanna) bonding is so sugar saccharine sweet, it would even put the ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’ Rajshree variant of family bonhomie to shame. But mind you, this is no family drama. Varun is not here to just play daddy dearest, but is a man of action, even though the opening rushes will have you believe that he is not a man of violence.

Frantically, he chases a man who has splashed dirty water on his daughter’s school uniform, only to ask him to say sorry. While he and his daughter continue to play games of sweet indulgence, on the side runs the story of trafficking of girls. That he will soon be driven into the vortex is a given.

But to pique our interest, this is not all. Cut to the past, John is actually DCP Satya Varma, who has a loving mother. Sheeba Chadda sure is turning a pro at playing the loving maa. As her reel son, the righteous police officer goes around bashing all kinds of goondas in Mumbai. It’s a matter of time before he will run into his bete noire, Nanaji (Jackie Shroff), the kingpin of human trafficking. And also meet his lady love, Dr Meera (the beautiful Keerthy Suresh). Hereafter, what all happens is something you have seen before in umpteen number of movies. We get it, ‘Baby John’ is a masala film. So why pepper it with a cause?

Indeed, in a country where safety of women is of paramount concern, where rape cases not only go unreported but victims rarely find justice, it’s a justifiable issue. But the way things pan out, there isn’t an iota of emotional connect. Except for a short impassioned speech by Head Constable Ram Sevak (Rajpal Yadav) on how the accused go scot-free, the film does no service to the cause it feigns to espouse.

Fan service, tipping the hat to other films and pop references are singularly unfunny. Jokes fall flat and evoke no mirth. The scene where Satya literally takes a class of ruffians locked in a school classroom is meant to bring the house down. But answers like ‘we celebrate dry day on August 15’ reek of juvenile humour.

Comedy, says Raghubir’s otherwise sombre character in the film, is serious business. It sure is and so is filmmaking. Here, the fast pace (editing by Ruben), too, is watered down by an unnecessary spate of songs.

Though Varun is a fine actor, his ‘Dabbang’ act, including the way he plays with his glasses, sorry shades, lacks the same charisma. A superstar is a superstar and Sallu Bhai’s cameo in the post-climax proves it with elan. Alas, it’s too late for him to add sparkle to the mishmash. Wamiqa, who has brought gravitas to many a film, despite a twist to her character of Khushi’s schoolteacher, doesn’t get to do much.

Jackie tries too hard to breathe fire and venom and Zakir Hussain and Prakash Belawadi as faces of corruption are almost caricatures.

Dare we put in a disclaimer: we have nothing against massy entertainers, provided they entertain. Varun’s Satya keeps uttering ‘good vibes only’… only we can’t suppress that yawn.