‘Baramulla’ (2025) Netflix Movie Review - Mostly Mediocre But The Climax Is Interesting

Aditya Suhas Jambhale's Baramulla recycles quite a few thriller tropes, which makes it, to an extent, uninteresting and mediocre. There's a cop with a tragic past that affects his personal life. There are video calls made to the main boss, whose online profile has no display picture. The bad guys communicate using secret radio codes, and a local politician is thrown into the mix to add pressure on our main cop.

Manav Kaul plays this cop — the DSP who arrives from Jammu to Kashmir. His name is Ridwaan, and he's your typical tough, no-nonsense officer. When he first enters his new police station, he doesn't head to his cabin; instead, he begins interrogating the prime suspect in a kidnapping — a magician accused of abducting an ex-MLA's son. The magician, of course, insists he's innocent. And surprisingly, he's telling the truth — another boy soon gets kidnapped, and not by him. This is where Baramulla reveals its supernatural side. There's a white flower, a dog's scent, a creepy shadow, and strange noises. A servant takes food to what looks like an empty room, but it's clear something unsettling is happening inside. Who are these ghosts? Are they connected to the kidnapped children? And what are spirits doing in a story about militants?

Baramulla is certainly ambitious and has its heart in the right place. Yet, for most of its runtime, it feels flat and matter-of-fact. Jambhale plants clues and plot details to tease the audience, but he never builds a truly eerie or mysterious atmosphere. There's neither tension nor suspense; the scenes are straightforward, getting the job done without much flair. He makes you wonder what's really happening, but doesn't proceed further. Instead, the film fills time with unremarkable jump scares and dream sequences that offer only temporary thrills, not genuine dread.

There isn't much that holds your attention in Baramulla — until the climax. (Spoilers ahead.) The camera suddenly seems possessed, moving with vigor as it opens a portal between the past and the present. The ghosts are revealed to be Kashmiri Pandits who were killed during the 1989–1990 exodus. Vivek Agnihotri exploited this event in The Kashmir Files, irresponsibly maligning an entire community for money and political favor. Jambhale, through Baramulla, tries to right that wrong. He attempts a lot in the climax — blaming Islamist militants, asserting that not all Muslims are evil, and calling for unity and friendship between Hindus and Muslims. That he manages to juggle all this without losing his footing is impressive in itself.

Still, one wonders how much stronger Baramulla could have been had Jambhale developed the story's emotional and psychological depth. Ridwaan is called an "infidel," and there's unresolved tension between him and his daughter Noorie (Arista Mehta). Noorie and her brother (Singh Rohaan) struggle to make friends — their loneliness carries immense pain, which Jambhale treats merely as an embellishment. The same is true of the film's emotional core: it's used to create mood rather than meaning. The director never expands on or convincingly resolves the characters' personal struggles. For instance, he doesn't allow Noorie and Ridwaan to reconnect through small gestures or awkward conversations. Their relationship is hastily mended at the end, after the supernatural event, as if a plot thread were being wrapped up only because the movie has reached its conclusion. In trying to do justice to the suffering of the Kashmiri Pandits, Jambhale forgets to do justice to his own characters.

Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times