Film Naam Shabana Review: It is praiseworthy to watch once for capable performance of Taapsee Pannu and Akshay Kumar.

With Naam Shabana, director Neeraj Pandey choses Shivam Nair for the spinoff of his previous movie Baby. While Neeraj has written the story, he hasn’t directed the film.

Earlier, Neeraj Pandey and Akshay Kumar had joined hands together for a crack spy thriller named Baby, which had made us assured that Hindi Film Industry has finally arrived when it comes to spy fiction on the silver screen.

The movie was such a big hit that it encouraged the makers to make a separate movie on one of the characters from Baby named Shabana (Taapsee Pannu) and thus was Naam Shabana conceived. But, does it match up to the cleverness of Baby?

The events in this movie occur three years before Baby and revolves around Shabana Khan (Taapsee Pannu), a girl with a dark past, who is employed by Ranveer (Manoj Bajpayee), a senior officer of a secret agency, who also helps her seek vengeance for the murder of her boyfriend. Shabana is trained to be a killing machine and is soon deployed to abolish Mikhail, a ruthless arms dealer, who was responsible for killing two Indian agents in Austria. How Shabana manages to complete her mission with the help of her senior officer Ajay Singh Rathod (Akshay Kumar), forms the rest of the plot.

After Pink performance, Taapsee is quite good in her action scenes as well as her intense and dramatic scenes in the film and it is obvious that the girl has put in her blood, tears and sweat in this role. Bajpayee is fairly good as the intelligence officer, who recruits Shabana, though his heavy North Indian accent makes him sound funny when he mouths some dialogues in English. South star Prithviraj though is completely futile in a badly written role while Akshay Kumar in his cameo, is naturally worthy to watch. The support cast, Danny Denzongpa and Anupam Kher are good in their roles.

A movie featuring an ass-kicking female protagonist is bound to be liked by everybody and Naam Shabana does have its moments, though that doesn’t mean the many mistakes in the movie are to be overlooked. The first half indulges the protagonist and her love interest, Jai too much. It is only post-intermission, particularly the last 35 minutes in which proceedings pick up. Sticking to a typical-action drama narrative that jumps from Mumbai to Goa, Vienna to Kuala Lumpur, with the arms dealer and the ISI agents playing a cat-and-mouse game, the movie, is more a fantasy fare than a realistic one.

Director Neeraj Pandey, who has chosen the pen (credited for story, dialogues and screenplay) and passed on the megaphone (to director Shivam Nair) for this one, drafts a commercially feasible project. But Nair's version dilutes Pandey's thriller elements to some extent as the movie could've done better if it were a bit more tense and tighter. The movie suffers from is its messy production values and its ordinary special effects.

Neeraj’s screenplay isn’t as taut as his earlier outings either. It lacks the depth of A Wednesday, Baby and Special 26. Unlike his earlier stints, even the most important operations, thrilling escapades and edge-of-the-seat suspense sequences are foreseeable.

Overall, it is worthy to watch once for able act of Taapsee Pannu and Akshay Kumar.

Taapsee Pannu starrer Naam Shabana gets a UA certificate after 3 cuts!

Bollywood actress Taapsee Pannu is all geared up to kick ass in her new film Naam Shabana. The film is a prequel to Baby which starred Akshay Kumar in the lead and the special appearance by Taapsee was loved by all. Naam Shabana also stars Akshay, Manoj Bajpayee, Anupam Kher, Prithviraj Sukumaran. 

As per a famous tabloid, the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) has cleared the movie with a UA certificate and three cuts. 

One of the cuts includes a domestic violence scene. A source from CBFC said the tabloid, "Hitting a woman is not permissible under any circumstance. Today, if we had to certify films about domestic violence like Deepa Mehta’s Heaven On Earth or Jagmohan Mundra’s Provoked, it would be impossible."

There were two more uncommon cuts. "A shot showing a bottle of liquor had to go. And a Santa-Banta joke was asked to be deleted. Ridiculing any community, no matter how sporting the humour, it is not allowed," the source disclosed. 

Directed by Shivam Nair, the movie is slated to release on March 31, 2017. 

In the meantime, in an interview, when Taapsee was questioned whether there are any similarities between her character Shabana and herself, the actress disclosed, "A Big fat 0, I don’t relate to it at all. It was a huge challenge, not just physically but also mentally. I can’t identify with this role. So far, whatever role I did, I had an element of me in them, but this film has zero elements of me. I love to talk a lot, this woman doesn’t, she has extremely strong stubborn focus, I am not that stubborn with goals. She doesn’t shy away from hitting people if need be, I don’t do that, I can’t even stand violence in front of my eyes for a long time. I take everything at face value, while she can read between the lines. My sixth sense doesn’t exist."

Naam Shabana’s trailer with Taapsee-Akshay’s kickass punches!

Film Naam Shabana - the first ever spin-off of Akshay Kumar starrer Baby focuses on Shabana's story before BABY. What led to her induction into this ‘national security team'? 

In the previous trailer which was released lately, we got a prevue of what must have led to this paradigm shift in Shabana's life. It has something to do with her love life, and in a sudden turn of events, we see her trying to look for clues, for what we don't know. Maybe it's her story for revenge. But nothing comes easy. She is asked to do something in return for what she is seeking. And that's how her story begins. 

Do we have a deal Shabana? We hear someone say in another trailer posted by Akshay Kumar on his Twitter handle. The trailer gives us a glimpse of the rigorous training that Shabana was put to before she joined the force of men as they fight for the nation. Taapsee is seen performing some action sequence and stunts, and we must say it's really powerful.

Akshay Kumar, who will be seen doing a cameo in the movie, is also seen supporting Shabana in her task. "Itni door se aaya hoon, kuch toh karne toh," he says to Shabana as she seeks permission to kill someone. We know it's her story! But, we can't help but notice the pivotal role of Akshay Kumar in her story. 

Taapsee as Shabana is all set to enchant us as she dares to go what not many does. The movie also stars Anupam Kher, Manjoy Bajpayee amongst others in pivotal roles.

Film Naam Shabana is set to release on March 31, 2017

Taapsee Pannu stops the shoot of Naam Shabana for celebrating Big B's birthday!

Bollywood Shahenshah Amitabh Bachchan is turning 74 on October 11, this year and Amitabh's Pink co-star Taapsee Pannu has a surprise in store for his birthday. Pannu is postponing the shoot of her forthcoming movie, Naam Shabana, for two days to rejoice Senior Bachchan's birthday. 

A source close to the actor revealed, "So the shoot of Naam Shabana was going to start on the 10th of October but as it's Amit sir's birthday on 11th so Taapsee has asked the team of Naam Shabana to delay the shoot for 2 days as Taapsee and Shoojit both wanted to surprise Amitabh Bachchan on his birthday."

It’s lovable gesture of Taapsee Pannu for Big B.