Baba

<p>The film opens with the birth of Baba, the reincarnation of a who was a devotee of . Baba grows up as an and hotheaded man, but becomes a with his thoughts and actions. His lifestyle includes consuming , smoking , and chewing . His mother and maternal uncle, for whom Baba has great respect and love, are ardent devotees of . Chamundeswari stays in the neighbourhood of Baba’s residence which often quarrels with Baba but eventually falls in love with his style and attitude. Baba gets involved in a physical feud with the son of the Ippo Ramaswamy for the former had interfered with the sale of land by his neighbour. Ramasamy is the current leader of a party in the . 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 confront Ramaswamy. Baba decides to work hard to rebuild the colony and begins work as a labourer in his neighbour’s shop to earn money. Chamundeswari’s mother, upon seeing this, threatens Chamundeswari with death if she does not heed her words and marries someone else. Chamundeswari is left with no choice and tells Baba that she is not willing to marry a . 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 (love) is (illusion) and immediately breaks up with her. Later, a dishevelled , Divyananda Bharathi, approaches him and tell him that it is time for enlightenment. Baba is taken to the , where he meets Mahavatar Babaji, who tests him by granting seven (wishes; five in the remastered version) 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 of is bound to follow him forever. Baba is sent back to but baffled, he decides to test one of the mantras by wishing a 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 the 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 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 penultimate 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, the current , 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 make him the next CM with a majority. Then, as per the wish, Ramasamy’s father (the first leader of the party) wants to prove that the older generation is better and his son is reckless. The elections come, and Kanthan becomes CM. Ramaswamy calls a , to foil Baba’s magical powers. Guruji asks Ramaswamy and Purushottaman to bring the Baba’s and his to nullify the effects of the mantras. A fight ensues, with Baba’s mother being mortally wounded by Ramaswamy and Baba himself knocked unconscious by his henchmen. They try to kill him by in a . Their attempts fail when a 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. As Baba is just about to ascend to the Himalayas, the new chief minister Kandhan is assassinated by Ippo Ramasamy’s son. In a change of heart, Baba turns back to remain in , to the cheer of the crowds that were hopeful that he leads the state. In the re-edited 2022 re-release, Baba ascends to the Himalayas and meets Mahavatar Babaji, who tells him he had not served his mother, a virtue even more important than helping others. Baba is told than he would be reincarnated once again to the same mother, after which he will be allowed to return to the . was approached to compose the original songs and of the film. He initially declined the offer because of his busy schedule in , with . He eventually accepted the film while in . 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 , giving more than the music that is a characteristic part of a Rajinikanth film. Some of the songs were filmed in . A controversy regarding the soundtrack originated when lyricist expressed dissatisfaction over online recording. Rahman defended this, saying, “Busy as I was with , it was simply impossible for me to be in . Sometimes it is inevitable, in a situation like this, where the reputation and money of somebody else is at stake.” Rahman also faced criticism from the film fraternity for not recording the songs on time. The 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 and his ideology. Rahman introduced through the song “Kichchu Tha”. This song was reused with different instrumentation and vocals in (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, was sold for 1.5 crore. This record remained unbroken until , another Rajnikanth film. was the distributor of the film for Malaysia. 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. Ramadoss, a politician from (PMK) condemned Rajinikanth for posing with in the film and playing the role of a chain smoker in the film, which glorified smoking and drinking and encouraged to pick up those habits. PMK volunteers attacked theatres which screened the film and usurped film rolls, and burnt it. 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. The film was and on December 10, 2022, two days before Rajinikanth’s birthday, with an alternate ending. Director Suresh Krishna stated that they did some patchwork and on the film. Speaking to , 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 and re-worked by A. R. Rahman. The film had a limited re-release within Tamil Nadu and a few cities across India. The film was noted for its dialogue spoken by Rajinikanth “Katham Katham” (Finish, Finish), which gained popularity and also inspired released in 2015.</p>