Baby and Baby is a Tamil Movie written and directed by Prathap. The lead characters in the movie are Jai, Sathyaraj, Yogi Babu, Pragya and Nagra, while Keerthana, Sai Dhanya and Ilavarasu are the side characters. The Baby and Baby movie is produced by B. Yuvaraj under the banner of Yuvaraj Films and the distribution of the movie is done by Number Twenty One Media.
The cinematography of the movie is done by T. P. Sarathy, editing is done by K. Anandhalingakumar and the music is handled by D. Imman. The official runtime of Baby and Baby movie is 2 hours and 12 minutes. The reported budget of the movie is Rs. 35 crore and the box office collection is not yet reported. However, according to some sources, the movie is already in profit so the box office has already crossed the Rs. 35 crore mark.
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Review
Baby and Baby, directed by Pradhap, is a comedy of errors, which has everything it needs to be a light-hearted entertainer, but ends up being bloated with outdated treatment and cliched humor. Focused on a baby swap at an airport between two families, Shiva (Jai) and Guna (Yogi Babu), the movie appears to provide chaos but settles in for staid cliches and tired gags.
The greatest problem of the movie is its approach. Instead of its familiar premise used to develop new joke material, Baby & Baby’s other major problem is the use of tired tropes, soap opera caliber melodrama, and cartoon-character performances by its cast. Even seasoned actors such as Sathyaraj, Anandaraj and Ilavarasu are reduced to broad caricatures here, with their immense talents barely exploited. Jai has few promising moments and then settles down to one-note acting while Yogi Babu raises a few scenes with his one-liners.
The movie is already plodding along, but jarring background scores, problems with lip-syncing, and amateur choreography ruin the movie. Although there are a few emotional moments and Redin Kingsley’s funny stretch offer welcome relief, it’s not enough to redeem the whole experience.
Baby & Baby is also visually and tonally a relic of the early Aughts. Even attempts at humour, such as dubbing a kidnapper “Thookudurai“, miss the mark completely and the comedy of the movie is cringeworthy rather than clever. As promising as this is for an interesting family drama, the predictability of its screenplay, as well as the lack of original ideas, ultimately deflates its impact.
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In summary, Baby & Baby is a retrograde Tamil cinema of another era and not a good one at it. As a nostalgic trip or a mild time-pass, it might entertain at times. Otherwise, it’s a wishful movie, wishing that Tamil cinema would move forward rather than rehash old and dusty formulations.
Cast
In Baby & Baby, Jai plays Shiva, a young father caught up in the mayhem of a baby switch. Jai, a charismatic lead of a comedy, appears to be at the crossroads of the befuddled parent and a mass-hero cartoon. Yogi Babu as Guna is such a presence in the movie, with his natural comic timing and colorful antics. His one-liners, despite being plastered over in dubbing, nonetheless produce a few real laughs.
The presence of Sathyaraj as Mahalingam brings some gravitas to the otherwise exaggerated proceedings. He works through this old material with his usual aplomb, though. The leading ladies, Pragya Nagra (Priya) and Sai Dhanya (Malar) don’t have much to do except respond to the mess swirling around them.
Veteran actors Ilavarasu (as conservative Muthaiya) and Nizhalgal Ravi add to the family drama. The duo, who are masters of comic timing, try to add some zing to the slapstick scenes, but poor writing ensures that they fall flat. Redin Kingsley as Inspector Kuzhanthaivelu is a joy in his off-beat wordplay.
Comedians like Singampuli, Rajendran, RJ Vigneshkanth, Thangadurai, KPY Ramar, Lollu Sabha Seshu whom we can very well place also come in, but only play peripheral roles with more comic relief scenes. The cast makes some good effort with a dated script, in spite of the weaknesses of the movie.
Critical Review
The Times of India gave the movie two stars out of five and find Baby & Baby stale and forced even comparable to a laugh track. An unbelievable baby swap leads to overblown feuds, predictable writing and recycled gags. Yogi Babu has a good run however, the character of Jai leave any impact. The screen writers read the handbook about how to cast a movie. The movie fails as both comedy and family drama.
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Cinema Express’s Narayani M rated the movie with one and a half stars out of five stars and also finds the movie emphatically old-fashioned, boastful of out of date humour and over-the-top drama. It’s a really interesting premise, but it amounts to a movie that is written in a very bad way and has its jokes thrown out in a forced way. Redin Kingsley gets a couple of laughs, but hackneyed choreography and over-enunciated sequences feel less like a comedy-drama, and more like a dated throwback.
Writing a two-star review for The South First, Thinkal Menon describes Baby & Baby as a predictable and outdated movie which follows the well-revealed formula of the baby mix-up without any of its elements feeling fresh. Despite some one-liners and the ensemble cast delivering one-liners that provide occasional entertainment, brittle writing and poorly staged set pieces not to mention an uninteresting screenplay drags the movie down.
The joke-heavy comedy and clumsy emotional beats, along with the 90s-style plotless treatment drags the movie down. Even veteran Sathyaraj and Ilavarasu’s efforts to save the movie fall flat in an underwhelming movie focusing more on drama than fleshing out characters.
Hindu reviewed by saying Baby & Baby fails to amuse despite a good cast. Although it sounds like the kind of premise that has some comedic possibilities, the movie is full of painfully predictable, cringey sequences packed with weak humor. An outdated look and forced half-laughs, bad lip sync and stale writing do it no favors, either. Though Yogi Babu raises a couple of laughs and some emotions work, but overall, the movie ends up as old wine in an old bottle.
Audiences Reviews
The movie got decent reviews from the audiences; more than 584 people rated the movie 5.8 stars out of 10 stars on IMDb, which is a decent review for a Tamil Movie. Upon looking over user reviews I found that Baby & Baby has been met with varying reactions from viewers.
Most movie-goers who loved the movie went ahead to applaud the movie as a good, typical comedy entertainer that definitely would have appeal to 90s kids who miss a feel good Tamil movie with a happy ending. Some of the users called it the best comedy entertainment in a long time and that it was entertaining to watch with family. For many, this nostalgic sense of early 2000s Tamil cinema was a huge positive. D. Imman’s music and the cast that featured Jai, Sathyaraj and Yogi Babu were also mentioned for adding to the charm of the movie.
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But a good part of the audience was savage in its criticism. Many called it one of the worst movie they have ever seen, blaming the movie for its lack of logic and bad writing and a plot that “goes in circles.” Some users felt this and movies like it was a regression for Tamil cinema and compared it unfavorably with contemporary Malayalam movies. Some even said that they turned it off after about 20 minutes because it was so bad.
In a nutshell, Baby & Baby worked for many audiences who were hungry for nostalgic comedy but miserable for the viewers who were looking for a different kind of storytelling and/ or a modern sensibility.
Songs
Baby and Baby offers a warm and rich score based on melody and lyricism. The album begins with Aara Amudhe composed by Yugabharathi which is a sweet song and it is sung well by Saindhavi. Out through DI Sound Factory, the song picks up the emotional core of the movie with a soft, flowing melody.
Next is “Thenpandi Muthupola” which is a sentimental duet sung by Diwakar and Meenakshi Ilayaraja. Yugabharathi’s lyrics are nostalgic and heart-wrenching with the voices of the singers becoming one entity to make it a beautiful listening experience. The soulful journey continues on the third track that is ‘Enna Thavam Seidheno‘ sung by Harish Raghavendra and Swetha Mohan. With its soft tune and emotionally affecting lyrics, this song has one of the album’s most touching moments.
The soundtrack is concluded with “Kingini Kingini” by Narayanan Ravishankar. Lyrically fanciful and melodious, this song provides a tender note and sings the musical journey to a sweet close. All four songs together run for around 18 minutes, making for a short yet intensely emotional album that fits in with the earnest storytelling of Baby and Baby.
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How to Watch The Baby and Baby Movie
After having a theatrical run, now Baby and Baby has been released and is streaming on the OTT platform Aha. Those who missed it in the cinema can now watch it from the comfort of their homes. You can stream Baby and Baby with an Aha subscription, which gives users access to numerous other movies, web series and exclusive content legally. Aha let you stream and download movies for offline watching.
During its theatrical run, fans were required to book tickets from apps such as BookMyShow and search a nearby theater on Google Maps if they wanted to see the movie in a theater. Now, with its release in digital form, Baby and Baby are a click away on Aha.