Friday, September 7, 2007

Heyy Baby: Will appeal to some

To be truly honest, I had gone to watch Chak de India, but the only tickets available were the ones where your nose touch the screen, so saw that there was more space available for this movie, and went ahead and booked tickets. I was a bit apprehensive, after all, there was already 'Three Men and a Baby' and this must be another rip-off. Now Sajjid Khan is a humorous character, but people even bigger than him have directed absolute duds. So, went in armed with some cold drink and popcorn, and made a pact with the spouse that if either of us sleeps, the other one will wake the sleepy one up.
The movie is essentially about these 3 guys, Akshay Kumar as Aroush, Ritesh Deshmukh as Tanmay, and Fardeen Khan as Ali / Al. Supporting them is Boman Irani as the baby's grandfather (and apparently a very rich man whose daughter does not listen to him), and Vidya Balan as Esha. Shahrukh Khan also makes a guest appearance (could not figure out the reason since he does nothing of any worth in his guest appearance).
These 3 guys all live in Sydney in Australia, live in the same apartment, and work in some way. Their other objective in life is to enjoy girls, with no strings attached, no loyalty and certainly no emotional attachment. Anything goes.
And then their past catches up with them, when a baby is left on their doorstep. They panic, since they have absolutely no idea as to how to handle a baby. Eventually, they figure out what to do with regarding to feeding and nappy changing, although there are a lot of hilarious scenes when they are doing this learning process. But having a baby in the house means that the schedule now belongs to the baby, not their own desires anymore.
They do develop some sort of attachment to the baby, but it all breaks down when they all have important appointments the next day, and because of lack of sleep, all of them either get kicked out or suffer great financial loss. This causes them in a rage to leave the baby outside a church, but suffer pangs of guilt when it rains. They go back for the baby, and find it motionless. In hospital, the baby recovers, but only after the doctor declares it a miracle, and with this, overnight they have a change of heart and become dedicated pseudo-dads (I think this was an overkill, since these 3 discussion how their Angel will not have boyfriends when they grow up sounds a bit far-fetched).
Anyhow, they become perfect carers, but get a shock one day when suddenly Vidya Balan (looking all serious and harsh - did not seem natural) turns up and takes the baby back. Then the story is revealed as to how Akshay played with her emotions to bed her, and she now despises him.
Akshay tries a reconciliation with the help of Boman Irani, but Vidya Balan is unmoved. They agree that if Vidya can find a good husband in 7 days, Akshay will drop out, otherwise drop in. (I am not sure whether such a thing will be legally enforceable or not). Anyhow Akshay plans to get his 2 friends to do the serenading so that the 7 days end and then she has no choice. There are a lot of emotions in play here, but somehow these 3 guys being all emotional rings not so true.
Anyhow, these 2 guys go ahead one by one (with one memorable scene where when Akshay tells Fardeen to go slow, he actually drives the car very slow, slower than walking speed, with a absolutely stupid look on his face). The movie feels a bit stretched at this point, and I did not laugh as much. In fact, it sounded stupid sometimes when they appear in disguise in front of her and she is not able to recognize him. Anyhow, in the end, she likes the way he is willing to let her go if it is in her own good, and after a bit of torture, comes back to her. And surprise, surprise, he had fallen in love with her.
Akshay is okay, Ritesh is great, Fardeen is too flabby (he should lose weight). Vidya Balan somehow was not as impressive, maybe because she cannot seem to carry off a angry persona that easily (and for this movie, she was required to be angry almost the whole time in Australia). This movie will appeal to some, while other will find it plain boring and with bad humour.

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