Naam Shabana Review: Taapsee "pulls" you through this yawn fest.

Naam Shabana is the prequel to the much acclaimed thriller, 'Baby' which had Akshay Kumar in a lead role.'Baby' was written and directed by Neeraj Pandey who has written and directed movies like 'A Wednesday' and 'Special 26' and so one can imagine how high the pedestal was set for Naam Shabana. Though Neeraj Pandey has only written this prequel, there is no meat to the script. It is infact a crash course on "How to become a spy."
When the writing is poor, it all boils down to the actors and thee director to carry the  movie. Director Shivam Nair makes Naam Shabana an even "traumatizing experience". The abrupt switches from scene to scene, the connectivity between pre and post interval sequences seem to be missing and terribly hamper the viewing.
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The only good point about the movie is Taapsee Pannu. She performs the role of Shabana Khan to perfection. She is vulnerable and emotional in the first half and her effort and dedication in becoming agent Shabana Khan is visible. She ticks all the right boxes and though the movie is slipping from her hand, she manages to keep a hold on the movie and also the viewers engaged.
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Prithviraj Sukumaran as the baddie Tony is disappointing. A 'plastic' face with no expressions and the 'villainous look' required seem to be missing. Still he is fair when compared to other aspects of the movie.
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Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpayee and Danny Denzongpa make an appearance but only Anupam Kher impresses in his 10 minute appearance. Akshay Kumar and Manoj Bajpayee seem to be monotonous in their respective roles and both of them are  unimpressive.
 
All other aspects of the movie like editing, screenplay and most importantly the background score are bad. A special mention to the background scorer, "Adding  the movie Baby's background score will neither increase the thrill nor will it improve this movie. It will just remind us of Baby more and more." Not only this, the background score is unnecessarily loud at times. Editing and Direction go hand in hand, when direction is not good, the editing is not good either. A very lousy screenplay comes to this point that it begins testing audiences' patience. There is unnecessary music also, which seems to drag an already 'seeming long' movie. Though, the camera work is better than these aspects. Cinematography and dialogues are average, at best.
 
Overall, Naam Shabana is a disappointment. A score of 5/10 and a rating of 2.5 stars can be given. This rating is only because of Taapsee and her brave act. Only and only the writer and director can be blamed for this. The stars are comparatively better.
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P.S. Kushagr Sahu saved the day for me and my friends by providing us with the 'entertainment' the movie was supposed to provide us with. Thank you!
                                               

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