‘Baby and Baby’ movie review: Jai’s film is high on errors, low on comedy

Poster of ‘Baby and Baby’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

When a family matriarch, vexed about not having a grandson after her first two sons produce girl children, is on the verge of giving up, her third son’s wife births a baby girl while the son’s friend becomes a father of a male child. In a minor confusion, the matriarch mistakes the male child of her son’s friend as her grandson and it’s up to the son and his friend to maintain the narrative while external forces decide to kidnap the child. If you, like the reviewer, are a fan of actor Thyagu’s “Adhaan Varghese’u” line from the 1996 Tamil film Enakkoru Magan Pirappan, you would most likely know the above plot is from the same Ramki-Vivek starrer, which itself was a remake of the Malayalam film Aadyathe Kanmani. A tweaked version of this also happens to be the plot of Jai’s Baby and Baby, an uninspiring, insipid ‘comedy’ film.

In Baby and Baby, Siva (Jai) and his wife Priya (Pragya Nagra) are awaiting their flight at the airport. Siva’s family has finally welcomed him home after learning that he has fathered a male child, which his sibling could not, and Siva’s father Mahalingam (Sathyaraj) wants to put his grandson on their ancestral golden cradle and declare him the heir.

ALSO READ: Jai interview: ‘Making someone laugh is tough’

Similarly, Guna (Yogi Babu) and his wife Malar (Sai Dhanya) are also waiting to fly home. His father Muthaiya (Ilavarasu), a god-fearing man and a staunch believer in customs and rituals, believes his granddaughter to be the lucky charm who will make his family more prosperous. When the babies get mixed up inadvertently, it’s up to the two couples to manage their families and make sure the elders don’t know that the children in their hands aren’t their grandkids. Of course, there are also relatives in both families who are unhappy with the proceedings and plan on kidnapping the infants.

Despite treading familiar territory that gives ample scope for humour, Baby and Baby fails to capitalise on it. What we are left with is shot after shot of cringe-inducing, painfully predictable sequences. Arguably the biggest disservice the film does is how it makes use — or rather wastes — its pool of talents including veterans such as Sathyaraj, Nizhalgal Ravi and Anandaraj. Without tapping into their immense experience, what we rather get is a reference to the film Nizhalgal when a character sings ‘Poongathave’ from it.

Apart from what’s unfolding within the story, the look and feel of the film itself is dated. When I was almost convinced this was an old film getting a late release similar to Madha Gaja Raja, a character doing an agonising rendition of Tamannaah’s ‘Kaavaalaa’ dance step proved me wrong. Nevertheless, Baby and Baby feels like a film from the early 2000s thanks to its treatment.

Poster of ‘Baby and Baby’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

And the lesser we speak about the film’s attempts at humour, the better. A character is named Thookudurai because he kidnaps people; Thooku – durai, get it? Another character is named Kulandaivelu just so that someone can point out how there are way too many “babies” in this story. While the blatant lip sync issues are the last of this film’s problems, it’s apparent that some of the chuckle-worthy moments are courtesy of Yogi Babu’s one-liners which have been added in dubbing.

A sliver of respite are the couple of emotional scenes that work. While Imman’s songs from this film travel opposite the direction of Chartbuster Town, they still feel superior to what the rest of the film offers. Despite Jai getting more than the required mass moments, it’s Yogi Babu who tries to pull off the balancing act as Baby and Baby sways between mass and humour territory. A film as clichéd as this deserves a clichéd critique and that would be to call it old wine in an old bottle.

Baby and Baby is currently running in theatres