Heyy Babyy
is a reasonable enough debut for funny man Sajid
Khan having its moments of cornyness, wit, humour
and goofyness but it is also juvenile, stupid,
loud and heavy-handed.
The film looks at Aroush (Akshay Kumar) Ali 'Al'
(Fardeen Khan) and Tanmay (Riteish Deshmukh) who
share an apartment and the ultimate bachelor fantasy
life in Sydney as they sleep around with gorgeous
women of all shapes and sizes to their heart's
content. Things take a turn when a little baby
girl is left at their doorstep. At first the three
are totally ill-equipped to handle a child. Tired
of feeding the baby and changing nappies constantly,
the three decide to abandon the girl leaving her
outside a church. However it rains that night
and the three rush to where they've left the girl
and see her half dead and soaked in the rain.
They take her to the hospital, filled with guilt
as they realize what they've done. Thankfully,
the baby survives, they get humanised in the process
and start becoming ideal 'parents', their lives
now happily centred around the little baby. Just
when all seems well, the baby's mother Esha (Vidya
Balan) comes and take her away...
Though thought to be as a remake of Three
Men and a Baby (1987), that it is not. However
sequences and dialogues when the men are totally
clueless about how to take care of this menace
have certainly been 'inspired' from Three
Men and a Baby - for instance when the three
are totally exhausted after feeding the baby,
Riteish moans the instructions on the baby food
box says to feed the baby every two hours, but
do you count from when you start, or when you
finish? It takes two hours to get her to eat,
and by the time she's done it's time to start
again, so that she's being fed all the time! Though
there is inherent humour in the situation of three
bachelors stuck with a baby, the scenes are repitative
and stretched far too long - in particular the
potty jokes. Not just here, but throughout the
film scenes and gags go on far too long unnecessarily
be it the kids beating up Riteish or the Akshay
- Vidya Balan flashback.
What works well is the easy rapport shared between
the three men. They genuinely look like friends
who know each other inside out. Actually post
Dil Chahta Hai (2001),
our filmmakers are managing to get the male-bonding
aspect worked out pretty well in our films. The
dialogue is smart and witty and easy going like
the friendship of the three men with some pretty
good smart one liners thrown in. Some moments
too work well. Like initially no one admits or
even wants to the baby's father. But after the
pneumonia sequence, when the Doctor asks who is
the baby's father, all three say it is them or
the 'go slooow' sequence with Fardeen behind the
wheel of the car driving ever so slowly that they
are overtaken by people walking!
 The
film, thankfully, straightaway gets to the point
as following the opening titles establishing the
three men and their lifestyle, the baby is dropped
at their doorstep. But the basic problem with
Heyy Babyy is that it too over the top
and lacks total subtlety in whatever it does.
If it's comedy, it's extremely loud, boisterous
and slapstick and often juvenile, if it's emotion,
its high degree Karan Johar melodrama. The screenplay
is uneven in its switching of moods back and forth.
The only time it actually works is when the film
shifts from its slapstick comedy to total seriousness
the first time as the little baby is brought to
the hospital, critically ill with pneumonia. But
then the scenario has one cringing when the doctor
says the girl may not survive and so Al, who Aroush
says wouldn't have done namaaz five times his
entire life till then, immediately does so and
next morning the doctor says he's never seen such
a miracle and that the baby would survive. Good
grief! However the entire sequence does work to
humanise the three guys so...
The film loses steam in the second half as the
Akshay - Vidya Balan flashback takes over. Adding
to this, the back story of Vidya finding out the
baby is hers is the weakest scripting point of
the film. In fact, talking about Vidya Balan's
track: Our filmmakers also need to be careful
with the messages they are sending out. True,
one gets away with a lot if handled comically
as is here but essentially the way Vidya Balan's
character is treated by all the men around her
and the way she is cheated and manipulated right
through the film by all is just not done. And
of course she has to forget everything she has
gone through for the customary happy ending.
The performances of all the three men undoubtedly
lift the film - Riteish Deshmukh is the most natural
of the lot, his sense of comic timing easily the
best. Akshay is starting to look his age (he looks
much too old for the kind of clothes and styling
he has been given) and you do you feel the effort
in the comedy scenes but his emotional scenes
do carry a punch especially in the airport sequence.
Fardeen Khan is fine and his Chupke Chupke
turn as Parimal Tripati works quite well even
if the entire sequence stretches on for too long.
Vidya Balan is a disappointment but more for her
much hyped 'make-over.' Adequate as an actress,
her dresses (what's with all their designs???)
and so called glam look just don't suit her at
all. Vidya has a naturally beautiful Indian face
that is a strong asset and looks best in Indian
clothes and minimal make up as even here she looks
best when in saris. The dresses and hair styling
are a complete no-no. In particular, her introduction
is just awful, as she undoubtedly looks her worst
in the film. Boman Irani is wasted. He does what
he has to efficiently and that's that but he's
becoming repititive now and its high time he shows
us what he's really capable of. Shah
Rukh Khan brings life to the Dil ka Mamala
Hai Dilbar matching steps with Akshay effortlessly
even if his inclusion in the film is obviously
a last minute decision and tackily done on the
story level. The baby is cute enough and winsome.
Technically, there is not much to write about
the cinematography which is by and large static,
frontal and eye level just to record the proceedings
rather than creatively use the camera. The overdose
of Digital Intermediate (DI) to 'correct' the
look of the film, lends it an artificial synthetic
look that is jarring at times. As mentioned earlier,
several of the scenes and comic gags outlive their
usefulness as they are extended and milked to
the extreme but one cannot really blame the editor
as he has to wait for the logical end of the scene
before cutting. It's the in between that's stretched.
The music by Shankar - Ehsaan Loy works well for
the title track with the various actresses and
in particular the Ankhon Pe Mohabbat Likhde
and Dil ka Mamala Hai Dilbar songs, the
last picturised with much liveliness and energy.
The Production Design of the film is suitably
lavish and rich.
All in all, the film is average but watchable.
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