Baaghi 4 movie review
Director: A Harsha
Cast: Tiger Shroff, Sanjay Dutt, Harnaaz Sandhu, Sonam Bajwa, Shreyas Talpade
Rating: ★★
As I walked out of Baaghi 4, I was reminded of the classic “dabbe mein dabba” prank. You keep opening box after box, expecting treasure, only to end up with nothing. This film is the same, except at the end, you get a mirror, forcing you to stare at your own delusion that the film could be better than the trailer.
Baaghi 4’s impostor syndrome
The fourth instalment in the Baaghi franchise seemed like a wannabe Animal from the trailer. But what catches you off guard is that the makers have even hired the same actors from the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer. Saurabh Sachdeva and Upendra Limaye are here, playing nearly the same kind of characters. There is also a song in the second half featuring Harnaaz Sandhu, which looks suspiciously like Besharam Rang from Pathaan.
The story revolves around Ronny (Tiger Shroff) suffering from hallucinations about a girl named Alisha (Harnaaz). Everyone around him makes him believe she is only in his imagination, until one day he learns that it is not the case. Watch the film to find out the rest.
The first half had me, I admit. It nearly convinced me that this could be one of those rare cases where a bad trailer hides a decent film. With actors like Shreyas Talpade (playing Tiger’s brother here) adding the occasional humour, the emotional backstory, and especially Tiger’s vulnerability, you are quite intrigued. Director A Harsha manages to keep the audience guessing, and the interval comes before you realise it.
The disappointing second half
Then comes the second half. Sanjay Dutt enters as the antagonist Chacko, and one wonders if someone swapped reels. The pace dips drastically. Believability, suspense, logic—everything goes out the window like one of the many henchmen Tiger tosses around. There is a track about lookalikes, Beauty and the Beast, and gallons of blood for no reason, and it all amounts to laughter at the wrong places.
Sanjay Dutt recently said in an interview about Baaghi 4 that no other film since Vaastav has moved him so much. If that is true, maybe he was watching something else entirely. I am telling you, someone changed the reels, and the same must have happened with Baba.
Tiger Shroff’s performance
One feels for Tiger, who has grown as an actor quite a lot since the first Baaghi. He showed glimpses of it in War, and here he embraces the unhinged character fully. He is fabulous at action, and he looks good on screen too. One only hopes that he starts reading the scripts he chooses, too.
Harnaaz Sandhu, in her acting debut, is passable but has a long way to go before she can carry emotional weight. Sanjay Dutt is dealt a bad hand, with sequences that could have shone but never rise above mediocrity. Sonam Bajwa has a weak role to begin with, and never looks entirely at ease in this setup.
In the end, Baaghi 4 is like being promised a roller coaster and being handed a merry-go-round. It goes in circles, makes some noise, and looks flashy from a distance, but once you are on it, you just wait for the ride to end.
