Baby Do Die Do is a refreshingly unapologetic return to classic Bollywood pulp entertainment in a time when crime thriller movies are going all in for realism and action movies are too hyper-realistic. Nachiket Samant is the director who puts the eccentricity on display, and the movie is really loud, colourful and really entertaining revenge story that never shies away from its larger-than-life ambitions.
The movie’s bizarre title might leave some people scratching their heads at first. But the answer is very simple. Baby Do Die Do is the English version of the protagonist’s name Baby Karmarkar. To the audience it sounds like “Baby Kar, Mar, Kar” which in turn is a kind of “Do, Die, Do.” What sounds confusing, however, becomes a symbol of the stubbornness of the central character. Baby is committed to doing what must be done, dying for it if necessary, and then rising again to do it all over again.
From the first few lines, the film sets its pulpy tone. The twin sisters sneak into a luxury hotel out of curiosity when they witness a murder. The tragic event has changed their lives forever. Baby is now one of the city’s most feared contract killers. Years later, deaf and mute, she is learning dark worlds and always looking for the ones who killed her sister.
As Baby’s thirst for revenge increases, the story takes a turn when she finds love. The emotional tension between revenge and redemption adds depth to an otherwise predictable story, requiring her to confront the world of pain and loss she’s built.
The plot itself is a familiar revenge thriller and a veteran film viewer may predict the most shocking twist before it goes into play. But Baby Do Die Do demonstrates that it is performance, not the story itself, that matters more than the story itself, and not the story that is surprising. The film doesn’t rely on shocking revelations alone; the story and presentation are so strong.
Nachiket Samant has reinvigorated old-school Bollywood and stuffed the screen with gangsters, contract killers, romance, revenge and outrageously imaginative action sequences. A particularly memorable touch is an umbrella as a sniper rifle that perfectly expresses the film’s passion to embrace cinematic absurdity without apology.
What makes the film so engaging is its pace. The movie will not stop moving over more than two hours. The film is filled with action, comedy, romance and emotional drama, and so the audience gets really engaged through it. Good editing will keep the pace high so the story is never stale.
And yet the film’s storytelling is also a nostalgia-based one. With much of the mainstream Indian cinema so obsessed with realism and low-key performances, Baby Do Die Do celebrates the exaggerated emotions and dramatic flair it has long had in common. It doesn’t try to remake the revenge genre in a new way but instead makes it a good experience in a familiar genre.
Baby Do Die Do is not a movie that wants to be validated through complexity or realism. It is, at once, a stylish, old-fashioned revenge story with action, emotion and pulp-fiction energy to it and so it is a film that is completely at peace with its very identity and not a movie that is a proof of itself.
