‘Babita Singh Reporting’ review: A character study posing as a police procedural

Everyone calls Babita Singh “Baby”. She doesn’t like to be infantilised, but she doesn’t know how to say no.

Babita’s inability to stand up for herself has made the assistant sub-inspector a favourite at the police station in which she has been posted. It also causes her to be suspended. Babita and her husband Sharad (Anshumaan Pushkar) use the downtime to travel to their home town Rewa. There, Babita gets involved in cracking the mystery behind the death of her childhood friend, the idol maker Kisna (Barun Sobti).

Babita’s efforts to seek justice for Bansi is off the books and threatens to spook Sharad as well as damage ties with her hostile mother-in-law (Sunita Rajwar) and sister-in-law (Priya Yadav). Bansi’s wife (Priyanka Setia) and Bansi’s brother (Nitin NS Goel) muddy, rather than clarify, matters.

A Kabir-quoting sari seller (Ravi Jhankal) asks Babita whether she actually wants to learn the truth. Will this non-confrontational woman, who’s grappling with severe weight gain and low self-esteem, find the strength to come into her own? Is Bansi all he’s made out to be?

Babita Singh Reporting, which is out on Prime Video, is excellent at posing the questions that matter. First-time feature director Ambiecka Pandit dexterously directs a script by Amita Vyas that deftly sets...

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