Jul 03, 2026 10:51am IST
‘Baby Do Die Do’ Review: Huma Qureshi’s Stylish Silent Assassin Saves The Day
On paper, the plot sounds solid. And to an extent, tried-and-tested. A no-questions-asked hitwoman-for-hire who also happens to be deaf-mute, makes close-range kills an artform. Love happens unexpectedly and she wants out. But cannot, because “humare dhandhe mein only incoming, no outgoing.” But the heart wants what it wants. And Baby’s not one to take no for an answer.
To box the ambitious “Baby Do Die Do” (BDDD) in brackets or multi-hyphens would limit what it sets out to do. It’s a revenge flick, a love story and has a woman at the heart of the story. All ingredients to build a badass female lead that kicks ass, can shoot without missing and is something of an enigma, even to those around her.
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The story begins with twin sisters walking into an abandoned building and only one walking out. A killer with a severed ear is on the loose and several decades later, Baby Karmarkar (Huma Qureshi), the surviving deaf-mute sibling is a silent killer who makes point-and-shoot as easy as going through the motions: receive a hit, confirm a hit, make the hit. With the efficiency and clean getaways that deserve a dabbawala-level efficacy case study.
Guiding Baby along is her handler, Papa/PM Jain (Chunky Panday) and it’s all smooth sailing until she starts hearing her dead sibling offer annotations on her days as she wistfully wanders through the day with a coldness she has come to accept. It doesn’t help that she has a silent admirer in Siddhu (Rachit Singh), who is equally hellbent on marrying her. His doggedness bears fruit and she decides to opt out of the trade. Her colleague Manu (Marudhar Shekhawat) isn’t much of a replacement killer and his lack of due diligence sees an ‘innocent’ killed.
Baby then has tough choices to make: return to a life that has no future, or leave her death-filled life for a possible future filled with unconditional love. It doesn’t help that those in the shadows would rather have her on-call than have her radio-silence.
“BDDD” is nothing without Qureshi. She shapeshifts from otherwise talkative roles (think everything from “Gangs Of Wasseypur” to “Single Salma”) to one that requires her to be silent throughout. She is appreciated for her restrained performances, generally, but shines when given pages of dialogue. In that context, to choose not to have her speak at all is brave on producer (and her brother Saqib Saleem) and director Nachiket Samant’s part.
The actor brings a gravitas to her role, never succumbing to exaggerated histrionics as a crutch to her part. She brings a quiet dignity to playing someone differently abled. Baby’s double life as a cold, calculating killer-for-hire is something Huma Qureshi plays seamlessly.
Chunky Panday and Sikandar Kher as Papa and Zafar Kakar, while having significance, get rendered as footnotes in this tale. Seema Pahwa as a top cop and Vidya Malavade as Mrs Murjhani fare slightly better. Singh, who plays Baby’s love interest and eventual husband, is charming, but his cloyingly sweet Siddhu never really levitates from being just that. No hidden agendas, no red flags. And that’s a disappointment.
An even bigger one is Nachiket Samant’s very middling direction. His screenwriting is quite predictable. The motives are pretty threadbare. A film like this requires better action choreography and more nuanced characters. You’re never invested in their intentions. Except in Baby’s. BDDD could have done with sharper editing.
“Baby Do Die Do” is the sort of film you watch to see an actor attempt something new, in a different setting and because, on paper, it sounded solid. Huma Qureshi carries this film, right till the final frame.
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