Babita Singh Reporting may look like a crime thriller in the beginning, but its real subject is a woman who has spent much of her life saying yes. Babita, a suspended police inspector, is investigating the murder of someone close to her, but the case is only one part of Ambiecka Pandit’s film. Written by Amita Vyas, it is more interested in the mental turmoil of its lead character, often infantilised as ‘Baby’ by those around her, and in how a diligent police officer struggles to find a voice and agency—not just at the station, but in her marriage and society at large.
The film follows Babita Singh, played by Nimisha Sajayan, an assistant sub-inspector who has earned a reputation for being the police station’s most accommodating officer. Babita accommodates everything whether it’s shooting a reel for a senior police officer or agreeing to take blame for his mistakes. Her habit of saying yes, or rather the inability to say no, leads to her suspension. Babita takes the downtime as an opportunity to spend time with her in-laws in Rewa for Dussehra. In Rewa, she meets Bansi, played by Barun Sobti, a childhood friend who now makes idols and is murdered suddenly.
What follows is an investigation by Babita, where she is forced to work around several obstacles. The local police are reluctant to take her questions seriously, the dismissive in-laws, and her own vulnerabilities as a wife and inspector. What makes the film stand out is that unlike other cop-dramas, Babita here is not driven by heroism, but her guilt, vulnerabilities and a quest to prove herself to the world. The investigation gradually takes her into the personal lives of people around Bansi, while also forcing her to confront the compromises she has made in her own life.
Sajayan carries the film with strong conviction. Her husband, Sharad, played by Anshuman Pushkar, has different shades of ordinariness which makes the tensions within their marriage more recognisable. Sharad is supportive, but still fears giving agency to his wife. His ideas that she would be better off without a field reporting job, how she should be behaving at her in-laws house, and the constant “harmless humour” around her weight—adds nuance to his character and complicates Babita’s life, without making it very obvious. This is perhaps the most interesting part of the film. Barun Sobti’s cameo as the innocent Bansi brings warmth and tenderness.
The film’s central idea is that Baby is investigating more than a murder. The case gradually becomes a way for her to examine the relationships, expectations and everyday humiliations that have kept her from asserting herself. In that sense, Babita Singh Reporting works as much as a character-driven domestic drama as it does a crime story. The film is easily one of the best Indian crime dramas of this year.