Baba (2002 film)

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Baba
Baba poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Suresh Krissna
Written by Gopu-Babu
S. Ramakrishnan
(dialogues)
Screenplay by Rajinikanth
Story by Rajinikanth
Produced by Rajinikanth
Starring Rajinikanth
Manisha Koirala
Goundamani
Cinematography Chota K. Naidu
Edited by V. T. Vijayan
Music by A. R. Rahman
Production
company

Lotus International
Distributed by Lotus International
Release date

15 August 2002[1]

Running time
178 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil

Baba is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language supernatural action film written and produced
by Rajinikanth under his banner Lotus International, directed by Suresh Krissna,
with cinematography by Chota K. Naidu. With Rajinikanth in the lead role, the
film's cast included Manisha Koirala, Sujatha, Ashish Vidyarthi, Vijayakumar,
Nambiar, and Sayaji Shinde. The original songs and background score were composed
by A.R. Rahman. Baba released on 15 August 2002 and performed poorly at the box
office.[2]

The film's story is about a carefree young non-believer of supreme power, Baba, who
is a reincarnation of a great saint from the Himalayas. After several twists and
problems caused by corrupt local politicians, Baba is taken to Mahavatar Babaji,
whom Baba was a follower of in his last life. Baba gets tested by the deity to
overcome several illusions of the materialistic world and is given seven chances of
wishes. How he uses the wishes while developing spirituality and falling into
loggerheads with the villains at the same time forms the rest of the story.
Contents

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Release
4.1 Reception
5 Soundtrack
6 Legacy
 7 References
8 External links

Plot

The film opens with the birth of Baba (Rajinikanth), who is a 'baba amsa Kumar
sambhootudu' (a failed saint reincarnated). Baba grows up as an atheist and hot-
blooded man, but a Good Samaritan. His lifestyle includes consuming alcohol,
smoking beedi, and chewing tobacco. His mother (Sujatha) and maternal uncle (M. N.
Nambiar), for whom Baba has great respect and love, are ardent devotees of
Mahavatar Babaji. Chamundeswari (Manisha Koirala) stays in the neighbourhood of
Baba's residence which often quarrels with Baba but eventually falls in love with
his style and attitude.

Baba involves in a physical feud with the son (Riyaz Khan) of the state Deputy
chief minister Ippo Ramaswamy (Ashish Vidyarthi) for the former had interfered with
the sale of land by his neighbour. Ramasamy is the current leader of a party in the
ruling coalition. Ramaswamy demolishes Baba's colony in retaliation for hurting his
son. When Baba is about to confront Ramaswamy, Baba's mother urges him to maintain
calm and not meet Ramaswamy. Baba decides to work hard to rebuild the colony and
joins as a labourer in his neighbour's shop and earns money. Chamundeswari's
mother, upon seeing this, threatens Chamundeswari with homicide if she does not
heed to her words of marrying someone else. Chamundeswari is left with no choice
and tells Baba that she is not willing to marry a daily labourer. Then Baba
realizes that so far, he has been only answerable for his mother. And if he gets
married, then he has to live for his wife and kids and would become answerable to
them. He feels that Prema (love) is Maya (illusion) and immediately breaks up with
her.

Later, a dishevelled sadhu, Divyananda Bharathi, approaches him and tell him that
it is time for enlightenment. Baba is taken to the Himalayas, where he meets
Mahavatar Babaji, who tests him by granting seven mantras (wishes) to Baba. He can
use these mantras anytime he likes; but unbeknownst to him, if he happened to use
the mantras for his own personal gains, the karma of rebirth is bound to follow him
forever. Baba is sent back to Chennai but baffled, he decides to test one of the
mantras by wishing a kite to come and fall in his hand. He waits for a few seconds
and decides that it was all his illusion, but the kite follows him to his house and
falls on his hand. He feels that it is coincidental and tries the second mantra on
a different kite to fall on his lap. He goes into his house and closes all the
possible entries into the house. But the kite makes its way and falls on his lap.
In the meantime, Chamundeeswari learns of Baba's origins from his mother that he is
a reincarnation of a saint who had disobeyed Babaji and that he himself does not
know so and tries to patch up with him. Baba retorts by saying that he no longer
loves her, leaving her heartbroken.

Despite the mantras coming true, Baba remains skeptical and tests the other two
mantras for trivial things. His uncle scolds him for his pointless skepticism in
spite of the truth and develops chest pain then. While on his death-bed, his uncle
tells Baba to use a mantra to renovate his surroundings that will finally instill
his belief in Babaji, and he dies. As predicted, the use of the fifth mantra causes
the government officials to renovate Baba's area. Baba learns the truth and ends
his tryst with alcohol, and reforms himself spiritually. He reserves the remaining
two mantras for his mother. However, he uses the sixth mantra to revive a newlywed
Japanese neighbour fighting for his life due to food poisoning. Meanwhile,
Ramaswamy learns about the mantras from Baba's two-timing companion.

Purushottaman, Ramaswamy's boss and the current CM of Tamil Nadu, wants to become
the permanent CM of the state using Baba's boons, which Baba refuses. He threatens
Baba's mother and also tries to kill him, but fails. Baba's friends Annamalai,
Perusu, Samundi, Kathirika urge him to use the final wish to become the permanent
CM himself as the state would be great under him. But Baba uses the last wish on
Kanthan, an old honest party member of Ramasamy, to become the next CM with a
single greater majority. Then, by the wish, Ramasamy's paralysed father (the first
leader of the party) wants to prove that the older generation is better as his son
is reckless. The elections come, and Kanthan becomes CM. Ramaswamy calls a tantric
Guruji, to foil Baba's magical powers. Guruji asks Ramaswamy and Purushottaman to
bring the chain in Baba's neck and his backbone to nullify the effects of the
mantras. A fight ensues, with Baba's mother getting mortally wounded by Ramaswamy
and Baba himself knocked unconscious by the henchmen. They try to kill him by
burning him in a pyre. Their attempts fail when a temple elephant puts out the
fire, with Baba regaining consciousness and battering the villains badly. When Baba
is about to kill Ramaswamy and Purushottaman, Divyananda Bharathi stops him. Baba's
dying mother advises Baba to leave the world and ascend to the Himalayas and dies
in his arms. Baba decides to live under Babaji's tutelage since he now disdains
living in the materialistic world without his mother. But when Baba is just about
to ascend to the Himalayas, the villains kill the loyal CM. Baba turns back to
fight them as his allies, Chamundeswari and the crowd cheer and the saints bless
him. The film ends with the tag "To be continued....".
Cast

Rajinikanth as Baba and Mahavatar Babaji (voice only)

Goundamani as Annamalai
Manisha Koirala as Chamundeeswari (Voice dubbed by Durga)
Sujatha as Baba's mother
Ashish Vidhyarthi as Ippo Ramaswamy, deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu
M. N. Nambiar as Baba's maternal uncle
Vijayakumar as Chamundeeswari's father
Sayaji Shinde as Divyananda Bharathi
Bharat Dabholkar as Chief Minister Purushothaman (voice dubbed by Murali Kumar)
Kitty as Bhai
Delhi Ganesh as Perusu
Crane Manohar as Kathirika
Karunas as Samundi
Riyaz Khan as Ramaswamy's son
N. Viswanathan as Baba's father
Seema as Jagadeeshwari, Chamundeeswari's mother
Santhoshi as Rajeshwari, sister
Vaishnavi as Bhuwaneshwari, Chamundeeswari's sister
Sanghavi as Lakshmi
Deepa Venkat as Chamundeeswari's friend
Vasu Vikram as Baba's treacherous friend
Amrish Puri as Tantrik

Special appearances in alphabetical order

Raghava Lawrence in a special appearance in "Maya Maya" song*

Ramya Krishnan as Neelambari[3]
Nassar as Suryaprakash
Prabhu Deva in a special appearance in "Baba Kichu Kichu Tha" song*
Radha Ravi as Minister of Tourism
Sarath Babu as the father of the girl saved by Baba

Production

Rajinikanth and Manisha was cast as lead pair for the first time.[4] Initially the
female lead was offered to Malayalam film actress, Samyuktha Varma but she left the
film due to other prior commitments and her marriage arrangements.[5]
Release
This high-budget production was sold at a record price of ₹17 crore to
distributors, but the film yielded a share of ₹13 crore worldwide. So, Rajinikanth
volunteered to return almost 25% of the investment. In Coimbatore distribution
territory, Baba was sold for ₹1.5 crore. This record remained unbroken until
Chandramukhi, another Rajnikanth film.[6]
Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. The film was praised for its
technical and production values, as well as the performances of the cast, while
there was criticism towards the lack of narrative focus in the first half, leading
to the film's excessive length and uneven pace. It also left some Rajinikanth fans
polarized, with many speculating that the film could be a political campaign of
sorts for himself. In contrast, others confused about the message this film was
intending to convey.[7][8]

The film was received with comments such as "the bloom was off the rose" and that
"the gold does not glitter any more".[9] Pattali Makkal Katchi leader S. Ramadoss
condemned him for smoking and posing with beedis in the film. He was criticised for
spoiling Tamil youth by glorifying smoking and drinking. PMK volunteers attacked
theatres which screened the film Baba and usurped film rolls, and burnt it.[10]
Amidst controversies and negative criticism, Rajinikanth kept himself away from
acting. Despite this, a few novice directors approached him with scripts, all of
which he rejected.[11]
Soundtrack
Baba
Soundtrack album by A. R. Rahman
Released July 2002
Recorded Panchathan Record Inn
Genre Film soundtrack
Label Star Music
Producer A.R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman chronology
The Legend of Bhagat Singh
(2002) Baba
(2002) Kadhal Virus
(2002)

A. R. Rahman was approached to compose the original songs and background score of
the film. He was initially reluctant to accept the offer because of his busy
schedule in London, with Bombay Dreams. He eventually accepted the film while in
Ajmer.[12] The songs were recorded in June 2002. Rahman had to record them online.

The soundtrack album was released in July 2002 in Chennai. According to Rahman, he
tried innovations with Baba, giving more than the jingoistic music that is a
characteristic part of a Rajini film.[13] Some of the songs were filmed in Europe.
[14]

In the intro and background fade-outs in "Ekam Eva Adhvitheyam", the theme of Baba,
Rahman replicated the Al Capone theme from the movie The Untouchables, originally
composed by the Italian composer Ennio Morricone.[15]

A controversy regarding the soundtrack originated when lyricist Vairamuthu

expressed dissatisfaction over the online recording. Rahman defended this, saying,
"Busy as I was with Bombay Dreams, it was simply impossible for me to be in
Chennai. Sometimes it is inevitable, in a situation like this, where the reputation
and money of somebody else is at stake."[citation needed] Rahman also faced
criticisms from the film fraternity for not recording the songs in time.[16]
The Dravidar Kazhagam objected to the lyrics of a song that had to be partially
deleted from the film later. They objected to what they called unfair commentary on
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy and his ideology.[13][17]

Rahman introduced Reena Bhardwaj through the song "Kichchu Tha". This song was
reused with different instrumentation and vocals in Swades (2004).
No. Song Singers Lyricist
1 "Baba Theme" ("Ekam Eva Adhvitheyam") Srinivas Vaali
2 "Dippu Dippu" Shankar Mahadevan Vairamuthu
3 "Kichchu Tha" S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Reena Bhardwaj, Rajinikanth (voice-
over) Vairamuthu
4 "Maya Maya" Karthik, Sujatha Mohan Vaali
5 "Rajyama Illai Emaiyama - 1" P. Jayachandran Vaali
6 "Rajyama Illai Emaiyama - 2" P. Jayachandran Vaali
7 "Sakthi Kodu" Karthik Vairamuthu
8 "Baba Rap" Blaaze Blaaze
Legacy

The film was noted for its dialogue spoken by Rajinikanth in the film "Katham
Katham" (Finish, Finish) gained popularity and also inspired a film of the same
name starring Natty and Nandha.[18]