Quite Entertaining
By MovieTalkies.com, 24 August 2007
3 / 5
Sajid Khan's much touted debut venture is here, and true to expectations it raises sufficient laughs. 'Heyy Babyy' is an enjoyable film. The film is a little uneven in the way the comic and sentimental elements of the film are woven together but the overall impact is that of fun. As for the film's resemblance to 'Three Men In a Boat', the director borrows just the premise of three merry bachelors and the baby from that film. After that, it is pure Sajid Khan.
The film is a breezy comedy about three bachelors, who only believe that life is about one-night stands. It's a typical bachelor's life that they lead with three-day old pizzas in the refrigerator and dirty underwear. There's Arush (Akshay Kumar), Tanmay (Ritesh Deshmukh) and Al (Fardeen Khan) who are having the time of their lives in Sydney, with girls and drinks galore. But their dating and mating rituals go for a toss when Angel (baby) makes her way into their lives. They find her literally on their doorsteps in her crib. They are not sure which one of them is the father of Angel and their methods of finding out do not find favour with their ex-conquests. Their lives are thrown out of gear, what with soiled diapers, baby food and a baby who keeps them up all night with her wailing. The disgusted bachelors then decide to dump the baby. They leave the crib outside a church. But the move backfires as it pours that night. When the guilty trio makes it way back to check on the baby, they find her lying frozen in her crib. She is rushed to hospital and somehow manages to survive. Contrite, the men apologise to the baby and promise themselves to make amends. Angel soon makes her way into their hearts. And their lives now revolve around baby food and nappies, and of course, Angel. Their old days of hunting are soon forgotten, till one fine day, when a woman walks in with her lawyer and claims that Angel is hers and walks off with the baby. The woman is Esha (Vidya Balan), who has had her heart broken by Arush. And now she decides to punish him by taking his baby away from him.
The film takes a slightly sentimental turn as the men try to cope with life without Angel, and Arush comes to terms with the fact that Angel is his daughter. The laughs and gags stop here for a while but before the sentimentality can get out of hand, the film slips back to its comic mode as the three men plot to bring Angel back home. Aiding them this time is Esha's father (Boman Irani).
The three male actors exhibit a wonderful chemistry between themselves. All three of them excel in their roles. Fardeen, specially impresses with his take-off on Parimal Tripathi, the character from Hrishikesh Mukherjee's laughathon Chupke Chupke. But the one who binds and holds the film together is Akshay Kumar. He excels in the dance and song routine, and carries of the sentimental bit as well. He stands out in his portrayal as the rougish Arush as well as the doting father of Angel. Boman's appearance in the film too adds to the comic quotient of the movie. He is, as usual, very effective. Vidya Balan is a promising actress and looks wonderful as well in the film, specially in her first appearance.
Sajid has packed his film with all the typical filmi masala. It is replete with one-liners and smart repartee, which is just so characteristic of him. He strives to entertain and he manages that quite well. The only problem with the film is the balance that it fails to strike between the comic and the serious. Both elements fail to mesh very well. But one has to credit Sajid for his masterly handling of the exposition. He wastes little time in establishing the main characters and their characteristics, before the baby makes her appearance. He gets to the point well, and effectively too. The film moves at a very decent pace and the screenplay (Sajid and Milap Jhaveri) is suitably taut. Milap's dialogues are quite in keeping with the mood of the film. The first half is well in place even though questions like what do these three actually do for money, remains unanswered as they spend all their time with Angel. Akshay is the only one shown holding an actual job, from which he is fired early in the movie. But moving away from logic, if we move to the quality of humour then there is a point to be made. This is not high brow humour. In fact, it is quite earthy at times. But what saves it from being crass is the element of wit that Milap introduces into the dialogues.
This music of the film by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy works wonders for the movies. It is peppy, melodious and every song of the film fits the situation perfectly. Of course, Shah Rukh Khan's appearance in the Sufi number, 'Mast Kalandar,' raises the value of the song a couple of notches higher. As a first-timer, Sajid reveals his comfort level if not expertise, with the language of Hindi cinema. He has not made a great movie but he has revealed that he knows how to make an entertaining one. Maybe, he will laugh his way to the box office.