Baba (2002 film)
Encyclopedia
Baba is a 2002
2002 in film
The year 2002 in film involved some significant events. The first significant releases of sequels took place between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Men in Black II, Analyze That, Spy Kids 2: The Island of...

 Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 fantasy
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...

-action film
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...

 starring and written by Rajinikanth and directed by Suresh Krishna. The film's cast included Manisha Koirala
Manisha Koirala
Manisha B. Koirala is a Nepali-Indian actress who works in Indian films, as well as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and social activist. Koirala has primarily worked in Hindi cinema, though she has appeared in several Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films as well...

, Vijayakumar, M. N. Nambiar
M. N. Nambiar
M. N. Nambiar M. N. Nambiar M. N. Nambiar ( (born Manjeri Narayanan Nambiar 7 March 1919 — 19 November 2008) was a film actor in Tamil cinema and had been in the film industry for more than 50 years.-Biography:...

, Goundamani
Goundamani
Goundamani is a Tamil film actor, comedian and screen icon. He is considered as the greatest comic actor in Kollywood and is renowned for his alliance with fellow actor Senthil.-Early Life:...

, Sujatha
Sujatha (actress)
Sujatha was a popular South Indian actress who has performed in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi language films, and was best known for restraint and subtlety in portrayal of varied emotions. Sujatha was introduced to the Tamil film industry by veteran director K. Balachander as a...

, Karunas
Karunas
Karunaas is a Tamil comedic film actor in the Tamil film industry. He has acted with many prominent actors and starred in successful films. Appearing mostly in supporting roles and providing comical relief, he also played lead roles in Dindigul Sarathy and Ambasamudram Ambani...

, Ashish Vidyarthi
Ashish Vidyarthi
Ashish Vidyarthi is an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Hindi films and lately in South Indian films. He has won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for film Drohkaal in 1995....

, Amrish Puri
Amrish Puri
Amrish Singh Puri , ; 22 June 1932 – 12 January 2005 was an iconic theater and film actor from India, who was a key player in the Indian theater movement that picked up steam in the 1960s. He worked with notable playwrights of the time, such as Satyadev Dubey and Girish Karnad...

, Sayaji Shinde
Sayaji Shinde
Sayaji Shinde is a Marathi film and multilingual actor from India who has acted in Bollywood, Tollywood and Kollywood. He was born in a small village near Satara, Maharashtra.-Career:...

 and Riyaz Khan
Riyaz Khan
Riyaz Khan is a Malayalam actor who has acted in several Malayalam and Telugu films. He debuted in the Malayalam film Sugham Sughakaram directed by Balachandra Menon. Later he went on to act in Tamil and Telugu films. After many years, he came back to the Malayalam film industry acting in Balettan...

. Guest roles and special appearances were performed by Ramya Krishnan
Ramya Krishnan
Ramya Krishnan is an actress who performs in Indian cinema. She has acted in over 200 films in five languages; Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.-Early life and background:...

, Sarath Babu
Sarath Babu
Sarath Babu is an Indian film actor, who has acted in almost all the major south Indian languages - Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. He has been in the industry for nearly 37 years and has acted in more than 200 movies, most of them in a supporting role. He has acted in 80 films each in...

, Lawrence Raghavendra
Lawrence Raghavendra
Raghav Murugaiyan is an Indian choreographer who has also appeared in films as an actor, director, composer and playback singer. After making his first few appearances in supporting actor roles, he got his breakthrough with Style and then Muni...

, Prabhu Deva, Radha Ravi
Radha Ravi
Radha Ravi is a Tamil film and television actor, who played supporting roles throughout his career. He is the son of yesteryear actor, M. R. Radha and the uncle of Vasu Vikram and halfbrother of Raadhika Sarathkumar. He is a chief member of the South Indian Film Artistes' Association...

  and Nassar
Nassar
Nassar is a Tamil actor, producer, writer, director, lyricist, and singer. He has appeared in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English films. He is often cited as part of India's specialist character actors, along with the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Nana Patekar...

. Soundtrack and background music were composed by A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...

.

The film's story is about a carefree young atheist, Baba, who is a reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...

 of a failed saint from the Himalayas. After several twists and problems caused by corrupt local politicians, Baba is taken to Mahavatar Babaji
Mahavatar Babaji
Mahavatar Babaji is the name given to an Indian saint by Lahiri Mahasaya and several of his disciples who met Mahavatar Babaji between 1861 and 1935. Some of these meetings were described by Paramhansa Yogananda in his book Autobiography of a Yogi , including a first hand telling of Yogananda’s own...

, 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
Karma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....

.

Plot

The film opens with the birth of Baba (Rajinikanth), who is a 'baba amsa sambhootudu'. Baba grows up as an atheist, hot-blooded guy and a Good Samaritan. His life style includes consuming alcohol, smoking beedi, chewing paan parag, His mother (Sujatha
Sujatha (actress)
Sujatha was a popular South Indian actress who has performed in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi language films, and was best known for restraint and subtlety in portrayal of varied emotions. Sujatha was introduced to the Tamil film industry by veteran director K. Balachander as a...

) and his maternal uncle (M. N. Nambiar
M. N. Nambiar
M. N. Nambiar M. N. Nambiar M. N. Nambiar ( (born Manjeri Narayanan Nambiar 7 March 1919 — 19 November 2008) was a film actor in Tamil cinema and had been in the film industry for more than 50 years.-Biography:...

) are ardent devotees of Mahavatar Babaji
Mahavatar Babaji
Mahavatar Babaji is the name given to an Indian saint by Lahiri Mahasaya and several of his disciples who met Mahavatar Babaji between 1861 and 1935. Some of these meetings were described by Paramhansa Yogananda in his book Autobiography of a Yogi , including a first hand telling of Yogananda’s own...

 (the Baba who is supposed to be of 2000 years old and who live in Himalayas). Chamundeswari (Manisha Koirala
Manisha Koirala
Manisha B. Koirala is a Nepali-Indian actress who works in Indian films, as well as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and social activist. Koirala has primarily worked in Hindi cinema, though she has appeared in several Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films as well...

) stays in the neighborhood of Baba and they fall in love.

Baba involves in a physical feud with the son of a state minister Ippo Ramaswamy (Ashish Vidyarthi
Ashish Vidyarthi
Ashish Vidyarthi is an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Hindi films and lately in South Indian films. He has won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for film Drohkaal in 1995....

). Ramaswamy demolishes the colony of Baba. When Baba is about to go to fight with Ramaswamy, Baba's mother urges him to maintain calm and rebuild lost colony it by working hard. Baba joins as a labor in a shop and earns money. Chamundeswari tells Baba that she is not willing to marry a daily labor. 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 wife and kids. And he would become answerable to them. He would not be able to help for the society as he might become selfish after marriage. He feels that prema (love) is maya (illusion). At that time, a weird looking sadhu comes to him and tell him that its time for getting enlightened. Baba is taken to Himalayas where he meets the real Baba. He gets frightened by the atmosphere and wishes to return back to Chennai. Then real Baba grants 7 wishes to Baba. He can use any of these wishes anytime he wishes to utilize. Baba is sent back to Chennai. Baba still could not believe that he went to Himalayas met real Baba. He uses that mantra to test the power by wishing a flying kite to come and fall in his hand. He waits for a few seconds and decide that it was all his illusion. Later the kite follows him to his house and falls on his hand. He feels that its coincidental and tries the mantra again to a different kite and wishes it to fall on his lap. He goes into his house and closes all the possible entries in the house. But the kite makes its way and falls on his lap. That is where he realizes that Baba is real and God exists in the world. He still has five more wishes left. And the minister Ramaswamy comes to know about it. They call a tantrik (Amrish Puri
Amrish Puri
Amrish Singh Puri , ; 22 June 1932 – 12 January 2005 was an iconic theater and film actor from India, who was a key player in the Indian theater movement that picked up steam in the 1960s. He worked with notable playwrights of the time, such as Satyadev Dubey and Girish Karnad...

) to foil Baba's magic powers.

Baba spends 3 more wishes for trivial things. The sixth wish is used to revive a patient fighting for his life. Ramaswamy's boss Purushottaman wants to become the permanent chief minister of the state using Baba's boons. He also tries to kill Baba but this attempt fails due to the blessings of Babaji. The final wish is then used to install an unselfish chief minister for the state. Once his wishes are used up, Baba has the choice of living with Babaji at the Himalayas or returning to his life in the material world. But when Baba is just about to ascend to the Himalayas, the villains kill the loyal chief minister. Baba turns back and the film ends with the tag "To be continued...." .

Cast

  • Rajinikanth as Baba and Mahavatar Babaji
    Mahavatar Babaji
    Mahavatar Babaji is the name given to an Indian saint by Lahiri Mahasaya and several of his disciples who met Mahavatar Babaji between 1861 and 1935. Some of these meetings were described by Paramhansa Yogananda in his book Autobiography of a Yogi , including a first hand telling of Yogananda’s own...

     (voice only)
  • Manisha Koirala
    Manisha Koirala
    Manisha B. Koirala is a Nepali-Indian actress who works in Indian films, as well as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and social activist. Koirala has primarily worked in Hindi cinema, though she has appeared in several Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films as well...

     as Chamundeeswari
  • Goundamani
    Goundamani
    Goundamani is a Tamil film actor, comedian and screen icon. He is considered as the greatest comic actor in Kollywood and is renowned for his alliance with fellow actor Senthil.-Early Life:...

     as Annamalai
  • M. N. Nambiar
    M. N. Nambiar
    M. N. Nambiar M. N. Nambiar M. N. Nambiar ( (born Manjeri Narayanan Nambiar 7 March 1919 — 19 November 2008) was a film actor in Tamil cinema and had been in the film industry for more than 50 years.-Biography:...

     as Baba's maternal uncle
  • Ashish Vidyarthi
    Ashish Vidyarthi
    Ashish Vidyarthi is an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Hindi films and lately in South Indian films. He has won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for film Drohkaal in 1995....

     as Ippo Ramaswamy
  • Sujatha
    Sujatha (actress)
    Sujatha was a popular South Indian actress who has performed in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi language films, and was best known for restraint and subtlety in portrayal of varied emotions. Sujatha was introduced to the Tamil film industry by veteran director K. Balachander as a...

     as Baba's mother
  • Vijayakumar as Chamundeeswari's father
  • Riyaz Khan
    Riyaz Khan
    Riyaz Khan is a Malayalam actor who has acted in several Malayalam and Telugu films. He debuted in the Malayalam film Sugham Sughakaram directed by Balachandra Menon. Later he went on to act in Tamil and Telugu films. After many years, he came back to the Malayalam film industry acting in Balettan...

     as son of Ippo Ramaswamy
  • Karunas
    Karunas
    Karunaas is a Tamil comedic film actor in the Tamil film industry. He has acted with many prominent actors and starred in successful films. Appearing mostly in supporting roles and providing comical relief, he also played lead roles in Dindigul Sarathy and Ambasamudram Ambani...

     as Africa
  • Sayaji Shinde
    Sayaji Shinde
    Sayaji Shinde is a Marathi film and multilingual actor from India who has acted in Bollywood, Tollywood and Kollywood. He was born in a small village near Satara, Maharashtra.-Career:...

     as Divyananda Bharathi
  • Amrish Puri
    Amrish Puri
    Amrish Singh Puri , ; 22 June 1932 – 12 January 2005 was an iconic theater and film actor from India, who was a key player in the Indian theater movement that picked up steam in the 1960s. He worked with notable playwrights of the time, such as Satyadev Dubey and Girish Karnad...

  • Ramya Krishnan
    Ramya Krishnan
    Ramya Krishnan is an actress who performs in Indian cinema. She has acted in over 200 films in five languages; Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.-Early life and background:...

     as Neelambari (Guest appearance)
  • Nassar
    Nassar
    Nassar is a Tamil actor, producer, writer, director, lyricist, and singer. He has appeared in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English films. He is often cited as part of India's specialist character actors, along with the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Nana Patekar...

     as Suryaprakash (Guest appearance)
  • Radha Ravi
    Radha Ravi
    Radha Ravi is a Tamil film and television actor, who played supporting roles throughout his career. He is the son of yesteryear actor, M. R. Radha and the uncle of Vasu Vikram and halfbrother of Raadhika Sarathkumar. He is a chief member of the South Indian Film Artistes' Association...

     as MLA (Guest appearance)
  • Sarath Babu
    Sarath Babu
    Sarath Babu is an Indian film actor, who has acted in almost all the major south Indian languages - Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. He has been in the industry for nearly 37 years and has acted in more than 200 movies, most of them in a supporting role. He has acted in 80 films each in...

     in a special appearance
  • Prabhu Deva in a cameo appearance
  • Lawrence Raghavendra
    Lawrence Raghavendra
    Raghav Murugaiyan is an Indian choreographer who has also appeared in films as an actor, director, composer and playback singer. After making his first few appearances in supporting actor roles, he got his breakthrough with Style and then Muni...

     in a cameo appearance

Release

The film was a commercial failure but continued to top the year's charts profiting $5 million at the box office. In 2008, after the disaster of Kuselan
Kuselan
Kuselan is a 2008 Tamil drama film directed by P. Vasu, which was simultaneously made in Telugu as Kathanayakudu . Both remake of the Malayalam film Kadha Parayumbol, the film is directed by P. Vasu and produced by Pushpa Kandaswamy, Aswani Dutt and G. P. Vijayakumar in two languages...

, the exhibitors and distributors of Baba, who have declared the losses of the film 6 years ago, have surprisingly claimed the film as a super-hit.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack consists of 6 songs composed by A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...

. The songs were recorded in 2002 June. Rahman had to record them online as he was in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 with the works of Bombay Dreams
Bombay Dreams
Bombay Dreams is a Bollywood-themed musical, with music by A. R. Rahman, lyrics by Don Black and the book by Meera Syal and Thomas Meehan,and produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The London production opened in 2002 and ran for two years...

. The soundtrack album was released on July 2002 in Chennai. According to Rahman, he has tried innovations with Baba, giving more than the jingoistic music that is a characteristic part of a Rajni movie. The songs, especially the tracks "Maya Maya" and "Sakthi Kodu", turned out to be big hits and were considered one of the highlights in Baba. Some of the songs were filmed from Europe.

A controversy regarding the soundtrack originated when lyricist Vairamuthu
Vairamuthu
Vairamuthu Ramaswamy Thevar is an award-winning Tamil poet and lyricist.Debuting in the film Nizhalgal with the lyrics for the song "Ponmalai Pozhudhu", he has now about 5800 songs to his credit as of January 2009. His partnership with the composers Ilaiyaraaja, and later A. R...

 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." Rahman also faced criticisms from the film fraternity for not recording the songs in time. Another controversy was that Dravida Kazhagam objected to the lyrics of a song that had to be partially deleted from the film later. They have taken objection to what they have called unfair commentary on Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
Erode Venkata Ramasamy , affectionately called by his followers as Periyar , Thanthai Periyar or E. V...

 and Ramaswami's ideology.

Rahman introduced Reena Bhardwaj
Reena Bhardwaj
Reena Bhardwaj is a British Indian singer, songwriter and recording artist best known for her collaborations with AR Rahman and Nitin Sawhney...

 through the song "Kichchu Tha". This song was reused with different instrumentation and vocals in Swades
Swades
Swades: We, the People is a 2004 Indian film written, produced and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. The film stars Shahrukh Khan and debutante Gayatri Joshi...

(2004).
Track # Song Singer(s) Lyrics
1 "Baba Theme" ("Ekam Eva Adhvitheyam") Shreeni Vaali
Vaali (poet)
Vaali is a Tamil poet and lyricist who writes Tamil poetry and film song lyrics. Most recently he has extended lyrics for a couple of songs in Engeyum Kaadhal for the music of Harris Jayaraj. He has also acted in several films, most notably Hey Ram, Parthale Paravasam and Poi Kaal Kudhirai...

2 "Dippu Dippu" Shankar Mahadevan
Shankar Mahadevan
Shankar Mahadevan is an Indian music composer and singer. He is a part of the Shankar Ehsaan Loy trio team that composes for Indian films and a playback singer.-Early life:...

 
Vairamuthu
Vairamuthu
Vairamuthu Ramaswamy Thevar is an award-winning Tamil poet and lyricist.Debuting in the film Nizhalgal with the lyrics for the song "Ponmalai Pozhudhu", he has now about 5800 songs to his credit as of January 2009. His partnership with the composers Ilaiyaraaja, and later A. R...

3 "Kichchu Tha" Reena Bhardwaj
Reena Bhardwaj
Reena Bhardwaj is a British Indian singer, songwriter and recording artist best known for her collaborations with AR Rahman and Nitin Sawhney...

, S.P. Balasubramaniam 
Vairamuthu
4 "Maya Maya" Karthik
Karthik (singer)
Karthik is an Indian playback singer.Karthik started his professional singing career as a backing vocalist and has since been a playback singer in Tamil cinema while also single in other Indian languages for various composers...

, Sujatha
Sujatha Mohan
Sujatha Mohan , usually credited as Sujatha, is an award-winning Indian playback singer who is popular for singing in Malayalam and Tamil movies. She has also sung for Telugu, Kannada and Hindi movies. She is widely popular for her evergreen melodies and her sweet voice is considered to be her...

 
Vaali
5 "Rajyama Illai Emaiyama - 1" Jayachandran
Jayachandran
Paliyath Jayachandran, popularly known as P. Jayachandran is an Indian playback singer. He has won one National Award, four Kerala State Awards and four Tamil Nadu State Awards. He has recorded songs in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi languages...

 
Vaali
6 "Rajyama Illai Emaiyama - 2" Jayachandran
Jayachandran
Paliyath Jayachandran, popularly known as P. Jayachandran is an Indian playback singer. He has won one National Award, four Kerala State Awards and four Tamil Nadu State Awards. He has recorded songs in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi languages...

 
Vaali
7 "Sakthi Kodu" Karthik
Karthik (singer)
Karthik is an Indian playback singer.Karthik started his professional singing career as a backing vocalist and has since been a playback singer in Tamil cinema while also single in other Indian languages for various composers...

Vairamuthu
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