Baby John is a 2024 Indian Hindi-language action thriller directed by Kalees, serving as the official remake of Atlee’s 2016 Tamil blockbuster Theri. Headlined by Varun Dhawan in a high-octane action avatar, the film also marks the Hindi debut of National Award-winning actress Keerthy Suresh, alongside Wamiqa Gabbi, child artist Zara Zyanna, and veteran Jackie Shroff in pivotal roles.
Initially announced in July 2023 under the working title VD18, the film’s official title was revealed in February 2024. Shot extensively across Mumbai and the scenic locales of Kerala, principal photography began in August 2023 and wrapped up in October 2024. The film features music by Thaman S, dynamic cinematography by Kiran Koushik, and crisp editing by Ruben, aiming for a slick, mass-action presentation.
Released theatrically on Christmas Day, 25 December 2024, Baby John combined intense father-daughter emotional drama with stylized action sequences. Despite its big festive release, strong technical crew, and star power, the film garnered mixed-to-negative reviews and underperformed commercially, becoming one of the notable box-office disappointments of the year.
Cast and Crew
- Directer: Kalees
- Writter: Atlee, Kalees, Sumit Arora
- Screenplay: Kalees
- Producer: Jyoti Deshpande, Murad Khetani, Priya Atlee
- Star Cast: Varun Dhawan
- Keerthy Suresh
- Wamiqa Gabbi
- Jackie Shroff
- Cinematography: Kiran Koushik
- Editor: Ruben
- Music Director: Thaman S
- Production company: Jio Studios
- Cine1 Studios
- Vipin Agnihotri Films A for Apple Studios
- Genres: Action, Crime, Drama
- Distributor: PVR Inox Pictures, Pen Marudhar
- Release date: 25 December 2024
- Running time: 161 minutes
- Country: India
- Language: Hindi
Baby John movie 2024 Trailer
Film Star Cast
- Varun Dhawan as DCP Satya Verma IPS
- John D’Silva / Agent Baby John
- Keerthy Suresh as Dr. Meera Verma, Satya’s wife
- Wamiqa Gabbi as Tara / Adhira Verman IPS
- Khushi’s teacher and a spy
- Jackie Shroff as Babbar Sher / Nanaji
- Rajpal Yadav as Head Constable Ram Sevak
- Jackie
- Zara Zyanna as Khushi Verma.
- Sheeba Chaddha as Madhvi Verma, Satya’s mother
- Zakir Hussain as Inspector Baldev Patil
- Prakash Belawadi as DGP Yashraj Mukherjee IPS
- Armaan Khera as Ashwin, Nanaji’s son
- Shrikant Yadav as Bhima Rane, Nanaji’s younger brother
- Besant Ravi as Vettu Murugan
- B. S. Avinash as Samba
- Resh Lamba as Vishnu
- Sadanand Patil as Kaali Prasad
- Snigddha Suman as Amba
- Kaali Venkat as Amba’s father
- Sonalli Sharmisshtha as Amba’s mother
- Omkar Das Manikpuri as Badrinath
- Jaideep Ahlawat as Srikanth
- Anoop Puri as Meera’s father
- Geeta Tyagi as Meera’s aunt
- Reenaye Tejani as Meera’s cousin
- Mushtaq Khan as Principal
- Jaffer Sadiq as Boss
- Naresh Gosain as Finance Minister
- Arjai as Inspector
- Vikram Singh as SI
- Sahidur Rahaman as SP Amanpreet Singh IPS
- Kanchan Pagare as Corona
- Ajay Madhok as the bride’s father
- Sanya Malhotra as Satya’s prospective bride
- Salman Khan as Agent Bhaijaan
Story of the film
Bakery owner John D’Silva, often known as Baby John, resides in Kerala with his best friend Jackie, his dog Tiger, and his daughter Khushi. John instructs Khushi to defend herself after she is harassed and assaulted by a classmate, as nonviolence isn’t always the solution. Khushi’s teacher, Tara, requests to meet her parents after she beats up her bully. Tara becomes acquainted with John and gradually starts to have feelings for him.
John swiftly diffuses the situation when Khushi provokes a sex-trafficking group while they are at a church with Tara and John by pointing at a female they have abducted to traffic. Unbeknownst to John and Khushi, Tara finds the victim concealed in the crowd and conceals her in the back of their car before going to the police station to lodge a report. When Tara takes Khushi to a police station without his consent, John becomes irate. When the policeman inquires as to whether he had previously encountered John in Dehradun, John responds in excellent Malayalam that he has been a resident of Kerala for many generations. John had informed Tara that he didn’t speak Malayalam, so this surprised her. John hesitates for a second when the policeman summons him, Satya from behind, just as he is ready to go. Tara witnesses the whole thing. After the police tell the gang, they come to John’s house at night to murder Khushi, which makes John angry, and he murders the thugs.
Tara investigates John online after becoming suspicious of his actions at the police station. When she finally discovers that John is truly DCP Satya Verma, she gets to John’s place right before he vanquishes the thugs. Jackie finds out that Tara is a covert officer and that her identity is Adhira Verman. Jackie begins to tell her about John’s past.
The parents of an adolescent girl named Amba complain to him one day that she has been missing for days and that the local police have not taken any action to locate her. Upon initiating the inquiry, Satya discovers that Ashwin, the pampered son of notorious politician Nanaji, better known as Babbar Sher, and his thugs had sexually assaulted Amba, broken her legs, stabbed her viciously, and burnt her to death. The daughters of Nanaji’s employees who choose to keep quiet to save their own lives are ruthlessly trafficked by Nanaji, who is also involved in human trafficking.
When John arrives at Nanaji’s house to try to arrest Ashwin, he discovers his superior officer rejoicing over Ashwin’s election victory. When Satya sees Ashwin again, Nanaji encourages him to salute him. When he inquires about what might be done, Ram Sevak shows him a study that claims that 93000 women are raped in India annually, or four every hour. Babbar Sher vows to take revenge after Satya kills Ashwin viciously and tells him that the court and legal system would not take any action to stop Amba’s murder.
In the meantime, Satya defends a few children from a begging ring on the street and beats them up when the thugs attack him. He meets Chennai-based physician Meera while transporting the severely battered thugs to the hospital. Meera first finds Satya annoying, but after witnessing him funding the education of the children he saved, she soon comes to like him. The pair develops feelings for one another. When Satya later visits Meera’s family, Babbar Sher sends thugs to murder her at the same time. At Ashwin’s funeral, Satya vanquishes them and takes Babbar Sher into custody. When Satya and Meera meet, Meera wants him to quit the police, but Satya can persuade her to let him continue working. After getting married, Satya and Meera have a beautiful life together and have a daughter named Khushi.
Babbar Sher, Bhima, and Inspector Baldev Patil storm into Satya’s home the night of Khushi’s birthday, murdering Meera and Khushi’s mother, Madhvi, while attempting to drown Khushi. After Khushi is saved by a dying Meera, Satya is forced to swear that he will quit the police department and live a quiet life with Khushi. Accepting the pledge, Satya says goodbye to Meera with tears in his eyes and pretends to die so he can live a quiet life with Khushi.
Present: Adhira begins to care for Satya and Khushi after becoming depressed about their unfortunate life. After finding out that Satya and Khushi are still alive, Babbar Sher plans an accident on the school bus when Khushi is on a field trip. Khushi is saved by Satya with the assistance of Adhira and the locals. After discovering that Babbar is responsible for the disaster, Satya resolves to get revenge, goes to Mumbai, stops Babbar Sher’s illicit activities, and murders Baldev and Bhima. Despite Ram and Adhira’s efforts to stop Babbar Sher from kidnapping Khushi, Satya finds Babbar Sher’s hiding place, rescues Khushi and a group of ladies, and then charges at Babbar Sher, murdering him.
After serving as a RAW field agent for two years, Satya departs with Adhira, Jackie, and Agent Bhaijaan on a mission to assassinate Boss and DGP Yashraj Mukerjee for previously assisting Babbar Sher.
Production
Development
Two months after Theri (2016) came out, it was announced that Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar were the leading candidates to portray the roles in the Hindi remake, which will be directed by Rohit Shetty. Shetty, however, denied that the movie will be remade. There were rumors in late April 2020 that Varun Dhawan was being recruited to play the lead in a possible Hindi version. It was unclear, though, if the original movie’s director, Atlee, would oversee the project or assign the part to another else. According to reports, the filmmaker met with the actor in Mumbai in 2019 to talk about the potential for future cooperation. But nothing changed until early March 2022, when Dhawan apparently fulfilled his previous obligations and met with Atlee once again to finalize their project. Their partnership was made public on March 19.
Casting
After the Bawaal film (2023), Janhvi Kapoor was reportedly cast with Varun in the lead role. But it was later revealed that Keerthy Suresh had taken Kapoor’s place, making her Hindi cinema debut. She would allegedly reprise her role as Samantha in the first movie and be paid ₹3 crore (US$350,000). Wamiqa Gabbi was chosen to play Amy Jackson again. Jackie Shroff, who played the late Mahendran in the film, was chosen to play the primary adversary.
Alaayna Hussain was originally chosen to play Dhawan’s daughter, reenacting the part of Baby Nainika, who was Meena’s daughter. However, throughout the production, Zara Zyanna took her position. In crucial roles, Sheeba Chaddha and Rajpal Yadav were chosen to play Radhika Sarathkumar and Rajendran, respectively. Sanya Malhotra reprises her role as Sunaina and makes a cameo appearance as Dhawan’s prospective wife. In addition, Salman Khan would make a brief appearance before working with Atlee on a possible project.
Film Shooting
On August 9, 2023, an inaugural puja ceremony marked the start of principal photography. The next day, the first schedule was started in Mumbai. The areas were Dharavi, Bandra, and Borivali. Dhawan claimed on September 7 that the movie had been postponed because he had hurt his foot while filming. Shooting resumed on September 12 once he recovered. On December 15, Gabbi started filming her parts, and the production moved to Kerala. Filming was halted on December 23 after Dhawan had another injury. By December 27th, the initial timetable was finished.
Film shooting for the 2nd schedule started in Mumbai on 17th March. Mallapuram was also the scene of the shooting. Dhawan said on his Instagram account on April 2 that he had finished filming his parts after 70 days.
Music/Songs
In his solo Hindi debut, Thaman S. composed the original background score and soundtrack [citation needed], while Irshad Kamil, Adviteeya Vojjala, Ritesh G. Rao, Rajakumari, and Abhiruchi Chand wrote the lyrics. On November 25, 2024, the first single, “Nain Matakka,” was made available. On December 6, 2024, the second single, “Pikley Pom,” was made available.
On December 22, 2024, the fifth single, “Beast Mode,” was made available. Zee Music Company published the movie’s album on January 14, 2025.
Release
Theatrical
The original release date of Baby John was set for May 31, 2024; however, it was postponed because of incomplete post-production work. On Christmas Day, December 25, 2024, Baby John was released in theaters worldwide.
Home media
The movie’s online streaming rights were purchased by Amazon Prime. The platform started streaming it on February 19, 2025.
Review
Critics and viewers gave Baby John moderate to poor reviews, with some criticizing its slow pacing, uninspired narrative, and lack of tension.
With an average rating of 3.9/10, 33% of the reviews from 12 critics are positive on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.
Baby John is the ideal masala entertainment that Bollywood needed to cap off a fairly lackluster year, according to Aman Wadhwa of DNA India, who awarded it 3.5 out of 5.
While Baby John features excellent performances, its dull narrative and erratic pacing prevent it from being an engaging thriller, according to Chirag Sehgal of News 18, who scored it three out of five stars.
A mass entertainer with heart and action, according to Spottoday’s Anam Shaikh, who rated it three out of five stars.
India Today’s Sana Farzeen rated Baby John three out of five stars, stating that he could either win the battle against Allu Arjun’s mass-actioner or profit from the withdrawal symptoms that fans are going through following Pushpa 2: The Rule.
Lachmi Deb Roy of Firstpost awarded it three out of five stars, stating that Wamiqa Gabbi is incredibly underutilized in the movie, Jackie Shroff is unquestionably the show’s star, and Varun Dhawan has performed a good job.
Baby John tries to address a significant societal issue, but fails because of its shallow handling and excessive dependence on clichéd narrative devices, according to Rishil Jogani of Pinkvilla, who awarded it 2.5 out of 5 stars. Although the background music and action scenes are excellent, the movie does not offer a sophisticated or original perspective on its topic.
Varun Dhawan impresses, juggling a dual character as a bold officer and a loving father, according to Times of India reviewer Dhaval Roy, who rated it 2.5/5 stars. His portrayal gives the usually formulaic story more nuance and conviction.
Baby John is a decent attempt at fan service, according to Times Now’s Tanmayi Savadi, who scored it 2.5 out of 5 stars. However, it does not provide anything novel or fascinating. Redefining mass actioners from South filmmakers is crucial.
Baby John feels like a furiously rushed version of Theri, according to Kartik Bhardwaj of Cinema Express, who awarded it two out of five stars. It rushes to the crisis and does not give the characters time to develop. The action, when it occurs, is lackluster, and the build-up is frequently mediocre.
Baby John tries to disturb the cradle of Bollywood with South Indian spice, but ultimately finishes up wailing over spilled milk, according to OTT Play’s Aishwarya Vasudevan, who scored it two out of five stars.
The trouble is that Baby John falls way, way short of working action movie fans going into a celebratory frenzy, observed Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV, who awarded it two out of five stars.
According to The Indian Express’s Shubhra Gupta, who assigned Baby John a rating of one out of five stars, it is reasonable to say that it is the worst movie of 2024, a year in which huge, star-studded Bollywood went down.
Apart from the action, there is not much in Baby John that stands out, according to Rishabh Suri of Hindustan Times. If you can endure the dull songs and the terrible opening thirty minutes, it is worth seeing.
According to Bollywood Hungama, which gave it a rating of 3.5/5, Baby John is a successful mass entertainer because of its clapworthy moments, message, Varun Dhawan’s upbeat performance, and Salman Khan’s appearance. Given the prolonged holiday and the absence of competition until Republic Day, the film is expected to perform well at the box office.
References
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025k, June 22). Baby John (film). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_John_(film)
- Baby John (2024) ⭐ 5.0 | Action, crime, Drama. (2024, December 25). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27757805/
