A movie whose title has been inspired by a nursery rhyme does not even have the ability to appeal to that demographic. In Vishwas Pandyaa’s crime caper Baa Baaa Black Sheep, Baba (Manish Paul), the son of a cashew shop owner in Goa, realises that he actually belongs to a clan of crime-fighting vigilantes. His father Charudutt (Anupam Kher) pretends to be a henpecked husband in the house and is as peaceable as a rooster outside it.

Meanwhile, Baba is in love with the fancifully named Angelina (Manjari Phadnis), the daughter of art forger Brian (Annu Kapoor). Also in the picture is police officer Shivraj (Kay Kay Menon), hot on the trail of gangsters supported by corrupt home minister Utpal (Manish Wadhwa), who, of course, is running the drug trade in Goa.

These numerous strands connect in logical and amusing ways, Pandya and co-writer Sanjeev Puri will have us know. Each character is grandly introduced with a name card, as though that would make us remember them better. It is a measure of the movie’s staggering incompetence from start to finish that even veterans such as Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor and Kay Kay Menon do not manage to leave a trace. The lesser actors, led by television regular Manish Paul, cannot even begin to dare to dream. A trip to the slaughterhouse might be more welcoming.

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Baa Baaa Black Sheep (2018).