Baby Sam review: Mithun Ramesh, Anjali Nair starrer is appalling and tests your patience throughout

1.5/5

Story: Baby Sam follows Anto and Vidhya, a married couple who are trapped in a house in an abandoned apartment building, with their toddler being stranded on the outside. With crimes against children being prevalent in the city, can Anto and Vidhya find their child and get him back safe?

Review: Baby Sam is a movie that was meant to be a thriller to keep the viewers occupied, but instead tests the patience of the viewer to a point where turning your back to the movie would seem like the best option. From flaws in the technical department, which is understandable to the writing and acting, Baby Sam is a miss than a hit. 

The movie starts off with two people on a motorbike kidnapping a child who is playing in her yard. This is one of the few subplots in the story that is meant to keep the viewers on their toes, by adding excitement and thrill, but ends up being a pointless waste of time. To further this, there are scenes dedicated to a police investigation on the matter, with the police interrogating a group of criminals. 

Anto and Vidhya are a couple who are parents to a toddler named Sam. As part of a surprise, Anto takes his wife and child to see their new house, which is on the ninth floor of an apartment building, which is empty as it is still under construction. The only other person there is a security guard who is drunk and has passed out. Events ensue, and Baby Sam is locked out of the house with his parents stuck inside, with the door being jammed and being unable to be opened. This is the main plot of the story, and it is the attempt of the parents and later the police to find the missing child that makes up the movie. 

There are a lot of things the movie fails to execute including the performances, the technical aspects and a dry and decoupled story. The performance from all the actors including the leads, are missing the point and ends up being too aggressive and even over the top at times. While they do convey the feeling of panic, frustration and fear, poor writing and dialogues often force these feelings to miss the spot. Technically, while the cinematography is fine to an extent, the sound mixing is harsh and the editing sometimes feels out of place. While these are understandable, the story constantly and needlessly moving from a police investigation to the driver who passes comments of a lady at the service centre are all flaws in the movie that cannot be understood. 

To top all this off, the long set of dialogue, which ends up being a rather small rant from Anto about women not giving husbands peace and complaining about rights to go out of the house at night in peace just seems inexcusable. And with Anto ending it with issues of men not being covered by news channels and domestic abuse suffered by husbands, this could be the final cue for the viewer to just turn their backs on the movie and just walk out. 

Verdict: Baby Sam is a rather small production, but it lacks the edge of writing with the story being decoupled and even unnecessary at times. Failing to thrill or keep you at the edge of your seats, the movie is a miss rather than a hit.