Baaghi (2016 film)

Baaghi (2016 film)
Baaghi (Rebel) is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Sabbir Khan and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala under his banner Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment. A partial remake of the 2004 Telugu film Varsham, with a climax inspired by the 2011 Indonesian film The Raid: Redemption, the film stars Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead roles and Sudheer Babu in his Hindi debut, with Sunil Grover in a supporting role.
Baaghi was released worldwide on 29 April 2016. Made on a budget of , the film earned over worldwide. Later on, it spawned two spiritual sequels, Baaghi 2 (2018) and Baaghi 3 (2020), thus becoming the first installment in the Baaghi film series. The film received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Raghav Shetty is a Kalaripayattu champion and a dreaded gangster, who abducts Sia Khurana from her film set in Hyderabad and takes her to Bangkok. Sia's father, P.P. Khurana, along with the producer Dasanna seeks the government officers and cops for help, but no one is ready to assist them as Raghav is an influential man and there is unavailability of extradition treaty between India and Thailand in existence. Khurana then suggests to Dasanna that Sia's ex-boyfriend, Ranveer "Ronny" Singh is the only rebellious martial artist who can destroy Raghav and rescue Sia. Initially hesitant, Ronny agrees as he needs money to treat Subbu, a mute young boy who is being treated for his vocal cords.
Past: Ronny meets Siya on a train where he falls in love with Sia at first sight and also sees that Sia also carries a rebellious personality. Raghav also sees Sia and is besotted with her. At the behest of his late father Colonel Samarjit Singh, Ronny unwillingly becomes the student in the Kerala Academy Of Kalaripayattu, headed by Samarjit's former army colleague and Raghav's father Kailash Shetty a.k.a. Guruswamy; in due course of time, Guruswamy disciplines Ronny into a rebel with a cause; thus making Ronny as a rebellious martial artist of Kalaripayattu. As time goes on, Ronny and Sia fall in love with each other.
A money-minded Khurana agrees to marry Sia off to Raghav, who lures him with bundles of money. On learning that Sia is in love with Ronny, Khurana rats Ronny out to Raghav, who swears to kill him. Guruswamy overhears the plan and objects to it strongly. Feeling humiliated and enraged, Raghav kills Guruswamy by poisoning him to death. Later, Raghav tells his henchmen to get Ronny in front of him. The henchmen tries to harm Ronnie and the mute child Subbu, but Ronny beats up Raghav’s henchmen brutally. Following a confrontation with Raghav and later at Guruswamy's funeral, Khurana creates an atmosphere of misunderstanding in league with Raghav, causing Ronny and Sia to part ways.
Present: Ronny reaches Bangkok and visits Raghav's fight club, beating the most potent fighter to attract Raghav's attention. Raghav sends his henchmen to kill Ronnie, but Ronnie beats them up brutally. The next day, Ronny breaks into the house of Raghav's right-hand man, Biju, and holds Biju's wife at gunpoint, forcing him to reveal Sia's location. Learning that she is at the local hospital, Ronny saves Sia and escapes with her under both of them being disguised. Raghav does manage to spot them, but couldn’t do anything. The two stop at an island on their way back to India, where Sia discovers her father's deceit and the couple reunite. Raghav and his men suddenly attack the couple off-guard; Biju shoots Ronny, who falls off a cliff.
Raghav takes Sia back to his place, but Sia realizes that Ronny is alive, with Raghav being alerted to his invasive underbelly moments later. Realizing Biju's treachery, Raghav questions him and Biju affirms that he spared Ronny as he had spared his wife earlier. Raghav is unconvinced and finishes Biju. Ronny storms Raghav's building and single-handedly fights all the killers and swordsmen in Raghav's employ. Ronny reaches Raghav, who initially overpowers him. Raghav also reveals that he was the one who murdered Guruswamy. Enraged, Ronny uses Guruswamy's signature moves to kill Raghav. Now happily together with Sia, Ronny becomes the new teacher in Guruswamy's school.
Cast
Tiger Shroff as Ranveer "Ronny" Singh, Sia's love interest
Shraddha Kapoor as Sia Khurana, Ronny's love interest and Paresh's daughter
Sudheer Babu as Raghav Shetty, a gangster and Kalaripayattu champion; voice-over by Viraj Adhav
Sourav Chakraborty as Biju, Raghav's henchman
Shifuji Shaurya Bhardwaj as Kailash Shetty a.k.a. Guruswamy, Raghav's father and master of Kalaripayattu
Sunil Grover as Paresh Prakash Khurana "P. P.", Sia's father
Kota Srinivasa Rao as film producer Dasanna
Buddya Sunari Magar as Referee
Sanjay Mishra as Harry, a blind taxi driver in Bangkok
Sumit Gulati as Sukhi
Biswapati Sarkar as Hari, Ronny's friend
Prashant Singh as Gopi
Aryan Prajapati as Subbu, a mute little boy who is close to Ronny
Arun Bali in a voiceover appearance as Col. Samarjit Singh, Guruswamy's friend and Ronny's father
Production
Shroff trained and took up stunt classes for the film. Sajid Nadiadwala hired a special team of 50 people to keep Shroff's look under wraps. The makers did not want his look to be revealed because of his role in the film being distinct from his role in Heropanti. Telugu actor Sudheer Babu was signed to play a negative role, making his Bollywood debut. Shooting for Baaghi started on 27 May 2015. The shooting of the film completed on 21 February 2016. The film was extensively shot in India and Thailand. Soma Kerala Palace, Kochi was shown in the movie as the KARMA Institute (school of Guruswamy). Song Sab Tera was shot in the exotic Poda Island.
Soundtrack
The music of the film was composed by Meet Bros, Amaal Mallik, Ankit Tiwari, Manj Musik and Pranaay Rijia, while the score was composed by Julius Packiam. The song lyrics were written by Kumaar, Abhendra Kumar Upadhyay, Sanjeev Chaturvedi, Raftaar, Sabbir Khan and Rahul B. Seth. The first song of the film, "Sab Tera" was released on 18 March 2016, which was sung by Shraddha Kapoor and Armaan Malik. The second song of the film titled as "Let's Talk About Love", which was sung by Raftaar and Neha Kakkar
was released on 25 March 2016.
The album was released on 29 March 2016, which includes 6 songs.
Box office
Released on a Friday, the film netted 119.4 million, 11.13 crore, and 155.1 million respectively on its first three days, bringing in a total of 38.58 crore net on its opening weekend and meeting its 37 crore production cost. By its seventh day, the film had netted 59.72 crore. Baaghis daily collection peaked at 15.51 crore net on day three and began to decline thereafter, losing 79% of business by the end of the second week. The movie ultimately grossed 106.03 crore from India and 21.02 crore overseas, for a total worldwide gross estimate of 127.05 crores, one of the highest-grossing films of Shroff's career.
Reception
Critical reception
Baaghi received mixed reviews from critics with praise towards Shroff's performances, action sequences and music, but criticized its screenwriting.
Bollywood Hungama gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Baaghi is a typical masala entertainer which scores high on action and performances from the lead cast. With focus on entertainment, the film is, without a doubt, the best action film to come out of Bollywood in recent times. It has all the merits to hit the jackpot. At the box office, it will be lapped up by the masses on the account of its masala quotient."
Mohar Basu of The Times of India gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Baaghi blooms only during the fights but by the time the clock ticks towards the climax, you are exhausted. How much can you hoot for broken necks and crushed bones? You could try finding thrill in Tiger’s kicks but the film has nothing more to offer." Indiaglitz gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Baaghi' has rebellious action with bland reasons attached to it due to which it will cater only to those who love good action films and the single screen audience. The multiplex and family audience might not like the gore action with mindless drama attached to it.
Ananya Bhattacharya of India Today gave 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Baaghi has enough ingredients to pull people to the theatres. It is a crowd-pleaser through and through, at times, at the cost of several crucial factors. At the end of the day, Baaghi ends up feeling like a sequence of disjointed stylised action scenes, held together by the adhesive that is Tiger Shroff. Watch Baaghi this week if you want to whistle along to Tiger and Shraddha's bone-breaking punches."Anupama Chopra of Film Companion gave 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Baaghi will best serve people who are interested in moves rather than movies." Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times gave 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "In short, The Karate Kid enters Bloodsport and appears in a hurry to become Ong-Bak without losing the essential Bollywood qualities. Baaghi shines only in patches." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Shraddha Kapoor is slender and pretty and executes both the ‘chham chham’ in the rain as well as some roundhouse kicks and punches well enough, but is fashioned like a Bollywood heroine belonging to the potboilers of the 70s and 80s."
Sequel
On 1 May 2017, Shroff posted the first look poster of the sequel and the second installment of the Baaghi series Baaghi 2 on his Twitter account. Nadiadwala collaborated with Fox Star Studios following the dissolution of UTV Motion Pictures and the film was released under Fox Star Studios and Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment. Directed by Ahmed Khan, the film was released worldwide on 30 March 2018. A third installment was also announced under the title of Baaghi 3, with Nadiadwala the producer, Khan the director, and Shroff in the lead role.
References
External links
2016 films
2010s Hindi-language films
Indian action thriller films
Films scored by Meet Bros Anjjan
Films scored by Ankit Tiwari
Films scored by Manj Musik
Films scored by Amaal Mallik
Indian martial arts films
2016 action thriller films
Hindi remakes of Telugu films
Films shot in Thailand
Kalarippayattu films
2016 martial arts films
Indian romantic action films
Films directed by Sabbir Khan
Hindi-language action thriller films