A thriller that subverts expectations

It is usually a good sign when a director acknowledges the intelligence of his target audience, respects it when putting the finishing touches on a story. While entering Mohakhali Cineplex to watch the premiere of Shihab Shaheen's "Baba, Someone's Following Me", the pessimist in me instantly assumed that it'd be a straightforward tale of racism faced by South Asian students in Australia. In reality, the Binge original takes a more nuanced task to convey much more than that.

Shihab Shaheen, who wanted to tell of a harrowing incident that befell his daughter, does not fall into the pitfall of documentarising the actual event. Instead, bucking the 'instant gratification' trends of recent OTT thrillers, he opts for a slow-burn, beginning with a seemingly routine phone call from a daughter her father.

Within moments, we get to know of the strained relationship between the daughter (Tasnia Farin) and her father (Shahiduzzaman Selim). A shadowy figure follows her, as she calls her father to tell him that someone is following her. In light of the recent news of racist attacks in Australia, where she resides to study, the father panics. All the exposition in the film is accounted for in seconds.

What unfolds afterward is far-removed from the usual expectation – rather, the slow nature of "Baba, Someone's Following Me" might turn away impatient viewers expecting an action-packed romp. However, if one is to follow with patience, it rewards through its narrative and a conclusion that leaves no loose ends.

Carrying the story on his back is Shahiduzzaman Selim, who makes you want to ignore some of the plotholes and suspend your own disbelief – and the latter you'll need to do in quite some instances – for example when he marches into a minister's home in hopes of getting help for his daughter. However, the helplessness that he is successfully able to portray on-screen not only excuses his behaviour, but to some extent, helps justify it. Every frame that the veteran actor is in, he makes it his own.  

Tasnia Farin is tasked with the difficult job of portraying Biju, who has to walk a fine line between being helpless and empowered. As she is followed and (spoilers) abducted by a seemingly racist Aussie man, her emotions range from cautious, terrified and mortified to vengeful.

It is only the time that we are introduced to Shohel Mondol and Irfan Sazzad in the web-film that Shihab Shaheen starts to unfold his actual narrative. A keen-eyed viewer can already start to untangle the knots in the story when flashbacks of Farin and her ex-lover, portrayed by Irfan, are shown to the audience. Irfan Sazzad's character has Down Syndrome, which the actor portrays wonderfully.

Shohel Mondol, while creditable in his 'detective' moniker, leaves something to be desired in his performance, as the audience is used to seeing in his other memorable roles. Admittedly stoic by nature in this character, he does get the job done.

When all the aforementioned characters are added to the stew, the conclusion becomes the gravy that few can see coming until the final hints are dropped. The director does a fantastic job of weaving together the narrative in a way that makes every character matter near the end.

Amidst the generally well-paced story, a few things do take away from the web-film – the most glaring of which is the Australian actor's performance. Truth be told, it was clear that the crew, for whatever reason, had to settle for a substandard effort when it came to the secondary antagonist. His delivery was laughable at times, and if not for Tasnia Farin putting in her heart during the scenes, would have ruined the gravitas. As mentioned, there were many questions in the plot, including why the protagonist did not call the police helpline (maybe the real-life incident went down like that), and a shoehorned attempt to also include some political narrative which I found unnecessary.

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Real-life experience inspires Shihab Shaheen’s 'Baba, Someone Is Following Me'

I'd be remiss if I called "Baba, Someone's Following Me" a story about raising awareness about racism -- in fact, the actual plot deviates far from it, while reminding the audience that it exists in even the most developed societies. However, when a project asks of you to subscribe to an OTT platform with your hard-earned money to watch, it is bound to have much more than a message. This is where Shihab Shaheen, Shahiduzzaman Selim, Tasnia Farin, Irfan Sazzad and Shohel Mondol pull you in – making a fictional world believable.

The author is the Editor of Arts & Entertainment, The Daily Star.