PremiumJ Baby Movie Review: Urvashi is brilliant in this heart-warming story of dysfunctional family that gets derailed by too much sentimentality
J Baby Movie Review: J Baby brandishes subtle but nuanced performances. Urvashi, Dinesh, and Maaran are perfect for their roles and it is a delight to see them show off their best onscreen
Last Updated: 10.00 AM, Mar 08, 2024
J Baby story
Shankar (Attakathi Dinesh) and Senthil (Lollu Sabha Maran) are two sons of J Baby (Urvashi), a volatile personality who somehow ends up in Kolkata. As the sons are informed by the police department to come and take back their mother, J Baby traces the journey of two brothers who don’t really get along with each other, as they also reminisce the time spent with their mother.
J Baby review
J Baby is a film that talks about the plight of elderly and the difficult times they tend to go through during the last phase of their lives, as they face a range of emotions. Similarly, the film too, which draws inspiration from debutant director Suresh Mari’s life, is aplenty with the emotions that J Baby promises it to be; the mother-son bond. However, even with so much potential, the film fails short of exploring some of its interesting pockets of human tendencies.
One of the few nice facets of J Baby is how the film poignantly and particularly decides to show the phase of motherhood that is more vulnerable than sacrificing. Often celebrated for their selfless attitude and pacifying personality, mothers in Indian cinema have been exploited to the core that often they end up being a quintessential element in a story rather than a character by itself and recognising the woman she is. You can see a variety of them, a sentimental mother, dying mother, dumb mother, and mollycoddling mother to name a few.
The film tries to reverse this gaze by portraying the titular role as someone who is volatile. Now that’s something new. A mother who is precarious, vulnerable, and finally a woman who need not take all the bullets for her children until the end and be sacrificial? I wish J Baby had explored this aspect of both motherhood and womanhood when she becomes liberated from all the responsibilities that get dumped on her more often as a societal pressure than personal choice. As Baby calls her sons fondly naina (father), loneliness taunts her elderly life, driving her to craziness. From sneaking out delivered letters of the neighbours to locking other houses from outside, a sense of empathy is felt when she says, “na enna panrenu theriyala da” (I don’t know what am I doing). J Baby had so much potential to explore the psyche of the elderly and the woman of her age facing loneliness in her almost empty nest. But as the film takes a different route, melodrama and sympathy begin to peak, derailing the film from exploring an interesting and honest concept.
J Baby is touted to be an emotional drama, and one thing that it gets right is how it smoothly inserts layers of comedy even if the characters are in turmoil. This is greatly contributed by Maran, who despite his comic background, underplays diligently and delivers one-liners that are casual, crisp, and apt for the situation. There is an undeniable chemistry that he shares with Attakathi Dinesh. Despite the latter being the younger brother, Shankar is entrusted with the responsibilities. There is an invisible pain and troubled past that run between the brothers which put them at loggerheads. But the film never manages to solidify it with a potent conflict that doesn’t involve rumbling the head of a woman. Again saying, J Baby has got interesting characterisations and situations but falls into the rut of common sentimental baggage that it hardly evokes stirring emotions.
J Baby verdict
J Baby is a film that brandishes subtle but nuanced performances. Urvashi, Dinesh, and Maaran are perfect for their roles and it is a delight to see them perform and show off their best onscreen. There is a sense of vulnerability looming over the characters, which tugs at the heartstrings. But seeing the so many other arenas and potential that J Baby could have, the film fails to capitalise on that. Why not show a woman who finally frees herself from the moral responsibilities she is choked with in the name of motherhood? Why not show the plight of mental and ageing illness without sentimentality? Why not explore the dysfunctional family setup a step further? All these questions if answered, would have made J Baby one of the potential best watches of the year, but sadly misses a mark to tear you.