The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : This ‘Babyy’ lacks novelty

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Saturday, Aug 25, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

This ‘Babyy’ lacks novelty

THREE IS COMPANY: Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Fardeen Khan in ‘Heyy Babyy’.

Film: Heyy Babyy

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Fardeen Khan, Vidya Balan Boman Irani and Anupam Kher

Director: Sajid Khan

For years Sajid Khan has made a happy living scoffing at cut-copy paste filmmakers. His ready wit and unaffected humour have evoked smiles for years. Now the times have changed! Welcome to the league Mr Khan!

He goes back in time to about 20 years, does a bit of shoplifting and comes back with ‘Heyy Babyy’ – maybe the extra ‘y’ in both words is Khan’s idea of originality. The film is clearly ‘inspired’ by 216;Three Men and A Baby’, a 1980s film that tickled many.

Lifting an old film is not the only thing Khan does in the name of playing safe: he takes the trustworthy Akshay Kumar in a role he can do in his sleep. Akshay, living in a bachelors’ pad, plays a father to a baby somebody had left at his doorstep. Add constant comic interjections between Akshay and his mates, Riteish Deshmukh and Fardeen Khan, and you know Khan is close to the Priyadarshan-Dhawan territory.

Khan does not feel safe enough.

So he brings in Shah Rukh Khan in a cameo. And just to have that extra cushion, the director brings in old suspects Boman Irani and Anupam Kher, each of whom in a role he would have forgotten before the film’s release.

While Irani plays father to Vidya Balan, Kher appears out of the blue as SRK’s dad! And disappears just as suddenly.

All that for insurance, but does the film work? Well, for good part it does.

The jokes between the three guys saddled with the responsibility of bringing up a baby work among the masses. Deliberately loud, once in a while outrageously so, the chemistry between the guys is quite electric. The masses love the easy repartee of Akshay which forces even Fardeen and Riteish to occasionally shed their cloak of mediocrity. The guys may not be able to decide whose baby is it at their doorstep, but they take turns in playing modern dads, even showing their tender side.

That is until the time Akshay reveals it is his baby after all! Yawn! Bring in time machine in reverse and the poor viewers go from Sydney – where the film is largely based – to Delhi, and that one moment of weakness when Akshay had met Vidya! Yawn some more.

‘Heyy Babyy’ for all the ‘inspired’ effort, could have been a nice, breezy comedy had it been edited better. The film suffers from lack of pace and novelty and the jokes too get repetitive. Should you spend your money on this tale of a baby with three fathers and a missing mother who shows up at just the right time? Not yours. But if a friend is in a generous mood, take the offer gracefully, smile along.

ZIYA US SALAM

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