Baby John starts on a shocking note. The film drops but rises once the action begins. The pre-interval block is unexpected and truly clapworthy. Even post-interval, there are several scenes that stand out and will get a great response in cinemas. The powerful message and the emotional quotient are other strong factors. However, the first half is nearly 90 minutes long and has too many songs. The direction is a bit haphazard and also, the film comes at a time when we have seen many such movies in this space. But most importantly, the writing is not upto the mark; the hero-villain equation is not how one would want and hence, the impact is bound to be affected. Varun Dhawan is superb in the action scenes and also scores during the emotional moments. However, he looks too young for the role of DCP; there should have been a backstory as to how he became one so soon. Keerthy Suresh makes a confident debut in Bollywood and Wamiqa Gabbi, as expected, is impressive. Jackie Shroff looks menacing but is let down by the script. Zara Zyanna (Khushi) is adorable; her dialogues, sadly, are not easy to comprehend in some scenes. Rajpal Yadav (Ram Sevak) is seen in a never-before-seen avatar and for the first time, there would be whistles in his scenes. Sheeba Chadha, as always, is dependable. Jaffer Sadiq (Boss) and Shrikant Yadav (Bhima Rane) lend able support. Zakir Hussain (Baldev Patil), Prakash Belawadi and Omkar Das Manikpuri (Badrinath) are just okay. Salman Khan’s cameo is superb and much better than his appearance in Singham Again. All in all, Baby John makes for a decent one-time watch.
My rating – *** out of 5!