- Date of Release: 05 September 2025
- Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
- Language: Hindi
- Watch On: Theatres Only
Baaghi 4
Introduction
In many ways, the new Hindi film Baaghi 4 is a biopic of a film critic like me – someone who has and continues to watch such trashy films that he loses his mind, so much so that he begins to even hallucinate bad movies in his dreams, only for the world to say that bad movies did not exist! If that sentence was long, so was the travesty called Baaghi 4. Either that or I was hallucinating about this bad film, having already hallucinated the same Baaghi nightmare thrice before! In the opening sequence of Baaghi 4, I literally imagined an accident sequence involving a car that topples in the middle of the road. But because the stakes needed to be amped up, the car topples and topples and topples (why didn’t it just walk again?), until it lays itself pitch perfectly in the middle of a railway track wherein we witness our film critic….errr action hero Ronnyyyyyyyyyy (oh, that was Baaghi 3 I guess? Scratch that)…..Ronny (Tiger Shroff) smiling away as a moving train approaches the car in which he is stuck. The makers had a golden chance to end the atrocities of Ronny, the franchise and the trauma of the viewers in one go, but they miss that – and that results in a series of hallucinations, for Ronny, for the franchise and for the viewer watching this abomination!
Story & Screenplay
An unofficial remake (or should I say a theft) of the 2013 Tamil film Ainthu Ainthu Ainthu, and written by Sajid Nadiadwala and Rajat Arora (😂😂😂), Baaghi 4 takes the legacy of the franchise forward by incorporating another inspired story from the South. Here, even the maker from the South is pulled up – in order to make Ainthu times three make it appear like Headache times four….that is honestly the multiplication table of Baaghi 4 I guess. Or was I still hallucinating?? Speaking of hallucination our film critic turned action hero begins his hallucination game – imagining a love story with a girl called Alisha (Harnaaz Sandhu), only for a doctor, a woman at the grave, his brother Jeetu (Shreyas Talpade), an inspector (Upendra Limaye), a girl named Olivia (Sonam Bajwa), and almost everyone around him to say that it is Hallucination. It almost felt like hallucination stuck in a time loop of a bad film – a deja vu for a film critic who would shriek and fight and punch in thin air, just like Ronny does here.
For anyone who has watched the original Tamil film, would know where the drama is headed. But I had so many issues with transition in the original film, something that has also been replicated here in an atrocious fashion. A quick flashback (or is it hallucination?) involves a now navy officer Ronny (ya, this film critic keeps imagining himself to be Virat Kohli too, sochne me kya jaata hai?), who breaks an Iphone of the Zinda-version (alive you know) of Alisha, almost taunting her in his mumbling accent by terming her as ‘Gen-Z’ (the only word that I understood through the mumble), only to get to know that she needs her Iphone while treating her patients, thus falling head-over heels for her. It is quite a kidney-touching love story, literally speaking – although sandwiched between a comedy set-piece resembling a headless chicken.
The word derivative is at the moment synonymous with most Hindi films currently – an equation that results in an extra 2ab from another hallucinating mathematical formula. Here, the derivative is like night and day – something that was evident right through its teaser, and trailer and a promotional song. But I reiterate given that the film doesn’t give me too much space to write about its story. Imagine this – Ronny slicing, punching and butchering masked men in a hallway, which itself is a part of a dingy location. An original idea right? If only the samosa critics would know that this is a direct derivative of the action set-piece in Animal (2023). Another police station shootout sequence was straight out of KGF Chapter 2 (2022). In another instance, you see Ronny staring at a grave, only for a song transition to appear out of nowhere that represents a poor-man’s Besharam Rang in a bootlegging party! I bet Ronny would have spotted Sir Isaac Newton churning in the grave that he was overlooking – or was that was a hallucination too?
The derivatives continue through the late introduction of the antagonist Chacko (Sanjay Dutt) who is a derivative of Abrar (Bobby Deol) from Animal (2023). The only originality being that unlike Abrar, Chacko is a Christian spending most of his time ranting in front of the statue of Jesus Christ (so much so that even God had enough by the end of it😂). Even his brother here Paulo (Saurabh Sachdeva) is a derivative of Abid (Saurabh Sachdeva) from Animal. It is like Abid is a brother from another mother for Paulo, but then I digress.
The writing continues to hallucinate through the narrative, all in order to keep the mystery intact – that includes a random ‘butchering’ character (re)introduction, a beach shootout, a red wedding wherein all gangsters have a dress-code or else someone else would be shot in their place, a random transition shot, some more kills, a arm-wrestling contest that felt straight out of a Squid Game finale, and blood, some more blood, and some more blood. Yep Ravi Kumar from Badass Ravikumar (2025) would have had a field day with all the memes of his urine being more than the blood splattered in the film. The tagline of Baaghi 4 on its poster said ‘This Time He Is Not The Same’ – but most people missed out the toilet seat that he was seated on – I guess that was a searing metaphor for the movie and its writing! Or was I hallucinating about this bad film about a film critic hallucinating about a bad film…..
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues have a unique distinction of being way too dramatic, or way too mumbling – and that went perfectly in sync with the dramatically mumbling narrative of the film. There are so many songs in the film – almost making me wonder if this was a 3 hour long music video? Or was I hallucinating into believing that this was an action film with loads of blood? The BGM is generic while doing nothing to elevate the drama or the action set-pieces. The action choreography is insipid, barring two specific action set-pieces – one in the first hour and the other in the second hour, that were single shots with any integrated jump cuts. And this is a very specific issue too – Tiger Shroff is agile but underutilized also because others cannot keep pace with him, something that is evident in the slow-motion movements in the final act with Sanjay Dutt (as an example).
In that regard, even the cinematography was poor and boasted of frames that never kept you involved. The editing pattern is patchy to the extent that you wonder as to how it was even approved! It resembled KGF too with its sudden-blackout editing pattern, but there were cuts every 2 seconds right throughout the film. This was kindergarden stuff at best! Director A Harsha misses the mark here while being in no control of the proceedings. Neither do the emotions land, nor do the action set-piece or the thrills or performances. The report card of the director is filled with red marks, but I wouldn’t want him to reappear for this exam. Or that may result in Baaghi 5! The director was poor and a significant downgrade from his otherwise solid Kannada film Vedha (2022).
Performances
The performances are horrendous by the members of the cast. And you just know that when a talented actor like Saharsh Kumar Shukla is reduced to a tertiary cast (almost). Upendra Limaye as the cop is in a sleepwalking spree after Animal, repeating the same kind of roles in films like Jaat (2025) or here in Baaghi 4. It is a misuse of a talent that the actor would ideally bring to the table, wherein he is now in danger of being typecast. Saurabh Sachdeva as Paulo follows the similar trope – literally hamming his way through films after Animal. Only Dhadak 2 (2025) remaimed an anomaly in an otherwise sorry state of affairs for the actor who is playing the same kind of roles in a variety of films. Shreyas Talpade is hardly there in the film, and he is completely wasted.
Sonam Bajwa as Olivia excels partly in a combat sequence but largely remains underutilized, almost objectifying her here more than anything else. Dare I say that she was offered better roles in the Punjabi Film Industry rather than here. Sanjay Dutt as Chacko hams and hams and hams, coming across as a caricature rather than an intimidating figure. The emotional connect is missing here. Harnaaz Sandhu again is decent in combat sequences but is specifically found wanting in scenes of drama and emotions. She goes overboard and how in the second hour – a trait that could be observed in both her roles.
Tiger Shroff as Ronny is fast becoming irrelevant now – an actor in the 12th year in the industry but still wanting to mumble his way through various scenes. We know what he brings to the table now, his impeccable moves in action set-pieces. But you need someone to present him in an action film with formidable opponents who are actually swift and agile like him. This is because he is hardly good in acting and it seems there is no want for an improvement at all. Unlike the tagline of the film, he is still the same and this is not good news for him! If anything, he must first work on his dialogue delivery and later his expressions. But the question remains – is it too late already? Has the damage been done? I am all for second chances and so I won’t wish to write anyone off. But Tiger is repeatedly giving me a reason to do so! Come on dude, prove me wrong already!
Conclusion
Baaghi 4 is a SOLID FILM………………………………….that must win an award for Best Headache! This is because it equates to four times the headache in a hallucinated nightmare of a drama that has successfully killed most of my braincells now! As a derivative of Animal (2023), it hardly even purrs, and as an unofficial remake of the Tamil film Ainthu Ainthu Ainthu (2013), it surpasses the already bad filmmaking in the original film. And in terms of hallucination, it will probably renew itself for the next film of the franchise. Available in a theatre near you.