Movie : Baby
Starring : Anand Deverakonda, Vaishnavi Chaitanya, Viraj Ashwin, Naga Babu, Lirisha, Kusuma, Sathvik Anand, Babloo, Seetha, Mounika, Keerthana, and others
Director : Sai Rajesh
Producer : SKN
Music Director : Vijay Bulganin
Cinematographer : M N Balreddy
Editor : Viplav Nyshadam
Baby is a film that has earned a good buzz due to its chartbuster songs. Directed by Sai Rajesh, the film stars Anand Deverakonda, Vaishnavi Chaitanya, and Viraj Ashwin in the lead roles. The movie hit the screens today, and let’s see how it is.
Story :
Vaishnavi (Vaishnavi Chaitanya) and Anand (Anand Deverakonda), hailing from a slum, are high school lovebirds. Anand fails to make it to the college and becomes an auto driver, whereas Vaishnavi joins the college. Vaishnavi undergoes a massive transformation, and this is also the time she gets close to Viraj (Viraj Ashwin). Slowly problems start developing between Vaishnavi and Anand. An unexpected incident takes place, which changes the lives of Viraj, Anand, and Vaishnavi as a whole. What happened next? How did the incident affect the three? This forms part of the crux of the story.
Plus Points :
Baby is a take on modern-day relationships, and director Sai Rajesh sheds light on the chosen topic through three beautifully written characters which are diverse in their own way. By the end of the film, one would end up liking all the three lead characters due to the effective writing. The scene where Viraj and Anand meet for the first time is the biggest highlight.
The movie has a pretty good second half with a right blend of drama, emotions, and intense moments. Baby became even more captivating thanks to the wonderful dialogues that will strike a chord with the target audiences. There are a good amount of whistle-worthy moments, and youth can relate themselves to many scenes. A few scenes are intentionally placed to impress the youngsters, and they land up well.
Anand Deverakonda amazes big time with his stupendous performance. We get to see the actor in Anand through Baby, and his full potential has been tapped by the director. It is a bit challenging role, especially for a budding artist, but Anand killed it with his earnest performance.
Vaishnavi Chaitanya is a revelation in this romantic drama, and the young actress’s performance speaks volumes about her talent. Her character arc has been designed quite well. Vaishnavi performed pretty good in the emotional scenes too. Her phone call scene with Anand Deverakonda was terrific. Viraj Ashwin gets a solid role, and he performs to the tee. This is perhaps the best role done by Viraj so far, and he aced it to perfection.
When romantic dramas get a good album, the result is Baby. Every song composed by music composer Vijay Bulganin is too good, and also the effective background score enhances the impact in many sequences.
Minus Points :
The movie is quite lengthy, as it has a runtime of close to three hours. The makers could have trimmed down a few sequences, especially in the first half, for a better experience. The contemporary nature of the film might not go well with a few.
The first hour is slow paced, and the movie gets more interesting from the pre-interval portions. Though there are good moments and dialogues, they are few and far between. The pacing reduces the impact to an extent. At times, the first half gives us a feeling that it is a bit stretched.
Technical Aspects :
As mentioned earlier, music by Vijay is a major asset for Baby, which takes the film to the next level altogether. The cinematography by Balreddy is exquisite, and the visuals are easy on the eye. Particularly the songs are shot in an aesthetic manner. The editing is sloppy in the first half, but it is alright in the latter hour. The production values are first-rate.
Coming to the writer and director, Sai Rajesh, he did an impressive job with Baby. While the first hour was not that great, he makes it up with a very good second half that is a concoction of intense emotional sequences and solid dialogues. Sai Rajesh extracted the best out of his actors, and he used the music perfectly. His dialogues are fantastic and have inner depth. Had the first half been a bit racier, the movie’s range would have enhanced further.
Verdict :
On the whole, Baby sheds light on modern-day relationships in a neat manner, and the climax is unconventional. The performances of Anand Deverakonda, Vaishnavi Chaitanya, and Viraj Ashwin are simply superb. The second half has its heart in the right place, but the impact gets slightly reduced due to the slow-paced first half, which could have been still better. Also, the makers could have taken care of lengthy runtime. Nonetheless, Baby is a good watch this weekend. Go for it.
Rating : 3.75
