Heyy Babyy

This Hindi movie, made by Nadiadwalla Grandsons Entertainment (And I thought "& Sons" was outdated!), filmed in Australia and directed by Sajid Khan is a remake (or should I say loosely follows the events) of the Hollywood film, Three Men And A Baby. The Hindi version delves into the intricacies of the origin of the baby convincingly, and weaves a number of commentaries on sexual morality and the age-old double standards of Indian men. However, what I found most exciting was the portrayal of the Indian sexual revolution that now pervades all economic classes of Indian expats and locals. Male promiscuity is the foundation of the movie. However, conservative sexual values, predictably triumph in the end. Women, who have pre-martial sex are doomed to have misfortunes mar their futures. Men, can "fuck around" when they are young, but must become responsible dads once they are married. I can't remember the exact lines, but there's a cheesy dialogue that goes like this: "Before I was bad, but now I'm a Dad." On the other hand, non-Indians (especially white women) are portrayed as sexually promiscuous, and ever-ready to jump into bed even if they are not interested in their partners.

This is the first Hindi movie that I have seen which deals with seduction in extreme detail. There is an entire sequence (of possibly over 20 minutes) that shows how the Akshay Kumar character who is a "player," seduces Vidya Balan, who has strong traditional values though she lives in Sydney - which goes against the grain of pretentious Bollywood wisdom. As he "plays" Vidya at a friend's wedding, he pretends to be a highly conservative Hindu who believes in ancient traditions and values.

One of the most shocking scenes in the movie, which may be a first in the history of world cinema, was that of the baby being given shock therapy to revive her heart, and of an injection of some lethal-sounding drug being plunged into her lungs by her doctor. The filmatography was a bit weak here, as you could see that this therapy was being conducted on a doll. This scene clearly seems to be out-of-sync with the rest of the movie which has a feel-good, everything-will-be-okay, comedy feel. I felt that the scene needn't have been so harsh in order to make the trio melt into tears and regret their abandoning the baby.

Finally, let's come to the title of the movie. It obviously plays on the "little baby" and "sexy chick" ideas. But it also may be a twinge of a comment on the contemporary fad, of changing one's name according to some insane numerological hogwosh. For example Ritesh Desmukh changed his first name to Riteish. A yoga teacher I know changed her name from Carmine to Carrmine. All for good luck.

Whatever the strenghts and weaknesses of this movie, it's not one that will linger in my memory.