Oh Baby Is An Over-cute Swap Story
Oh Baby(Telugu)
Starring Laxmi, Samantha Akkineni
Directed by B V Nandini Reddy
Rating: ** ½ (2 and a half stars)
If only this personality-transformative comedy—is it a comedy? There is so much wailing and shrieking in the midst of the laughter—had not played it so cute, this could have been Telugu cinema’s own Miss Granny, the 2014 Korean film that director B V Nandini Reddy so optimistically endeavours to adapt into Telugu…with mixed results.
For starters the idea, the core if you will, seems swimmingly apt. Bridging the generation gap that has divided the Indian joint family into sharply polarized halves featuring the nuclear and non-nuclear family on the two sides of the boxing ring, the film brings us two gloriously over-the-top women characters from two different generations , joined together at the hip by….errrr…God.
Jagapathi Babu appears as ‘God’. Oh God!
Veteran actress Laxmi whom we all remember as the very alluring Julie in the 1970s remains saucy and sexy in her old age.She is delightful as a cantankerous grandmother nicknamed ‘Baby’ who has seen too much of life to bother with pleasantries. She cuts to the chase so unceremoniously and such peppery aggression , that her loved ones her are reduced to a cringe fringe.
The supporting cast only voices its disagreeability about Granny’s grumpy tirades. They are there with a purpose, albeit in a marginal way.
Sadly the Laxmi portion ends sooner than expected.After all, this is a film designed to spotlight Samantha Akkineni’s star power. She takes charge of the transformative in no time at all, as Laxmi is transformed into Samantha . . Most of what follows is a goofy over-cute joyride for its leading actress as she’s now a 70-year old in a 24-year old woman’s body.
So sweet.
There are jokes about physical fitness and nostalgic nods to classic actresses of yesteryears. But beyond these superficial efforts at creating a timeline, the narrative makes no effort to pull us into a ruminative journey into the universe that binds the two actress from diverse generations as one personality.
At most Oh baby is strewn with fun moments, all highlighting Samantha’s star power: Samantha dancing with a rock band helmed by Baby’s grandson(Teja Sajja, likeable), force-flirting with Naga Shourya(who falls for her not knowing that the lovely lady is veteran actress Laxmi transformed into Samantha Akkenini , ha ha), Samantha meeting up with dead husband (Adivi Shesh,pleasant in a fleeting cameo), and—biggest surprise for the fans—Samantha’s husband Naga Chaitanya also shows up in a scene…
There is enough fuel here to keep the leading lady’s fans all fired up. But I am not sure if Oh Baby fulfills the original Korean film’s aim to bring out the domestic dynamics of contemporary suburban lifestyles in the context of traditional values. There are generations clashing, yes. But the clamber is strictly superficial .Oh Babyaims low.And seems to enjoy being there.
