Revisiting Baba: Does It Deserve A Re-release?

To celebrate Superstar Rajinikanth's birthday on December 12, the re-release of Baba is being planned. It's rumoured that the superstar didn't want this to remain a commercial failure in the minds of people. The editing and the ending for the film might be different in the re-release as per media reports. Apparently, the team had shot multiple endings during production, and they are planning to experiment with one of the endings that they didn't use earlier.

There are definitely much more exciting films of his that deserve a re-release. Padayappa, Muthu, Annamalai, Mullum Malarum, Johny and Thillu Mullu to name a few. This choice seems a little odd to the fans. Let's look into the film and see what it was about.

Baba was conceived by the Superstar himself, who created the screenplay for the film and had it written by Gopu-Babu and writer S Ramakrishnan. The film was directed by Suresh Krissna, his star collaborator who directed his biggest hits, Annamalai and Baasha. AR Rahman composed the film's music. The song Shakthi Kodu became a sensational hit and introduced the gifted singer Karthik to the industry. The songs Dippu Kumari, and Maya Maya were also celebrated by the fans for the theatrical excitement that they created.

Goundamani was an integral part of the enjoyable moments in Baba. His comedic timing and the superstar's swag worked well for the film.

The film was a metaphor for Rajinikanth's political career or a lack of it. Baba teases the audience with whether Rajinikanth would enter politics or not, and the film has an open-ending that mildly suggested that he would probably make an entry. This probably had some effect on how the film was received.

The story actually has a good premise. Baba is chilling with his life, and not being very productive with his time. He gets granted seven wishes by a Yogi whom he is introduced to, by a well-wisher. Initially, he tests them out, and he is skeptical if the wishes coming true are just coincidences. And then he realizes that the wishes actually have magical power. He uses his wishes to change the political leadership in the state, but then after he is done with all the wishes, things go wrong again, and the ending explains how he tries to fix things without the power of his wishes.

The Superstar's swag, confidence, and innocence are surely a thing to look forward to. However, the humour in the film is likely to be a bit dated in terms of political correctness, and the high points failed to create magic even in the first release. Let's see if the film manages to suit the current audience better. Maybe the team thinks that the film was ahead of its time and might work better now. We' ll know in a few days.