Baby Girl Movie Review | Vishal Menon | THR India

Vishal Menon reviews Baby Girl, the new thriller from director Arun Varma that features Nivin Pauly in what feels like an afterthought role added purely for marketing purposes. Vishal notes the film contains a compelling moral dilemma—who deserves to be a mother, the woman capable of giving birth or the woman who can give unconditional love—explored through characters Ritu played by Lijomol and 19-year-old Meenakshi. However, writers Bobby Sanjay turn this potential into a convoluted mess, treating the baby like a missing courier and parading doubtful characters with skewed logic while relying on implausible coincidences to move the plot forward.

Vishal finds the filmmaking dated and basic, like something from the late 90s, with characters meant to look like gypsies appearing borrowed from a school cultural fest. He singles out Sam CS’s music as jarring and stilted, sounding like it was scored by prompting Gemini with “thriller movie music.” The police officers feel irrelevant, dramatic moments turn unserious with weak performances, and Nivin’s character Sanal keeps popping back into action whenever he’s been missing too long. Vishal concludes that Baby Girl is no match to the classic Traffic that the same team made over a decade ago, and ironically in a film about the divine blessing of childbirth, the baby herself feels like little more than a cute plot point.