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 wishes. How he uses the wishes while developing spirituality and being at loggerheads with the villains at the same time forms the rest of the story.
First released in 2002 with more than 100 days in theatres, the film was met with mixed critical reviews and was a box-office failure, resulting in Rajinikanth reimbursing distributors for their losses. The film was digitally remastered, re-edited with a shorter duration and an alternate ending, and re-released by Lyca Productions on 10 December 2022, twenty years after its original release, coinciding with Rajinikanth's birthday weekend and received a favourable response.[2][3]
Plot
The film's story is about a carefree young atheist, Baba, who is a reincarnation of a 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 and is given seven chances of wishes; the test is that if he uses any one of the wishes for his own personal desires, he would have to take many more births for him to get rid of the Karma.
Prabhu Deva in a special appearance in "Baba Kichu Kichu Tha" song
Soundtrack
A. R. Rahman was approached to compose the original songs and background score of the film. He initially declined the offer because of his busy schedule in London, with Bombay Dreams. He eventually accepted the film while in Ajmer.[5] The songs were recorded in June 2002. Rahman had to supervise the recordings online.
The soundtrack album was released in July 2002 in Chennai. According to Rahman, he tried novel innovations with Baba, giving more than the jingoistic music that is a characteristic part of a Rajinikanth film.[6] Some of the songs were filmed in Europe.[7]
A controversy regarding the soundtrack originated when lyricist Vairamuthu expressed dissatisfaction over 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 criticism from the film fraternity for not recording the songs on time.[8]
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.[6][9]
Rahman introduced Reena Bhardwaj through the song "Kichchu Tha". This song was reused with different instrumentation and vocals in Swades (2004).
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.[10]
V. Nagaraj was the distributor of the film for Malaysia.[11]
Reception
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.[12][13][14]
Controversy
Ramadoss, a politician from Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) condemned Rajinikanth for posing with beedis in the film and playing the role of a chain smoker in the film, which glorified smoking and drinking and encouraged Tamil youth to pick up those habits. PMK volunteers attacked theatres which screened the film Baba and usurped film rolls, and burnt it.[15] Amidst such 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.[16]
Re-release
The film was digitally remastered and re-released on December 10, 2022, two days before Rajinikanth's birthday, with an alternate ending.[17] Director Suresh Krishna stated that they did some patchwork and re-edits on the film. Speaking to Etimes, the director stated that it includes a number of changes: the film's running time has been reduced to 2.5 hrs from 3. The film has been converted digitally with exclusive dubbing from Rajinikanth. The film has reportedly been beautified digitally with enhanced sound quality in Dolby and re-worked by A. R. Rahman.
Publicity Designs for the re-release are worked by Somasundaram TN.
The film had a limited re-release within Tamil Nadu and a few cities across India.[18]
Legacy
The film was noted for its dialogue spoken by Rajinikanth "Katham Katham" (Finish, Finish), which gained popularity and also inspired a film of the same name released in 2015.[19]
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