Story
Anand (Anand Deverakonda) and Vaishnavi (Vaishnavi Chaitanya) are from basti and are childhood sweethearts. Vaishnavi goes on to join college whereas Anand fails 10th class and starts driving an auto for a living. Viraj (Viraj Ashwin) is her senior in the college and is from a rich background. Vaishnavi who is fascinated by gifts gets attracted to high lifestyle and gets her looks changed. She becomes good friends with Viraj as Anand feels that she is getting distanced from him after she joins the college. Rest of the story is about the confusions of Vaishnavi regarding what is right/wrong and how her life gets complicated.

Artists Performance

Anand Deverakonda’s character is written in a lovable manner. It’s full of purity and innocence. Anand is a perfect choice for this role. He is excellent. His performance in the last 20 minutes of the film shows her acting prowess (especially crying scenes - very naturally flowing and raw performance). The highlight of the film is Vaishnavi Chaitanya. Her character in the film has several shades. She looks adorable sometimes and you hate her some other times. She has done a great justice to an author-backed role. I liked the way she performed in a furious mode (huffing and puffing) when instigated in the film (phone conversation with Anand in interval, and the way she reacted to Viraj after he accused her). Viraj Ashwin is very good. A character that looks lovely at one time and deceitful other times. Seetha (youtube) plays a manipulative co-student of Vaishnavi and she is fine. Harsha Chemudu played a brief, but vital role. It's nice to see the director use him just for the story demand instead of using him for entertainment. Nagababu did the role of a drunkard supportive father of the heroine with a couple of good dialogues. Lirisha (Superwoman from Vakeel Saab) plays the role of the heroine’s greedy mother who encourages her daughter in wrongdoings. Satvik Anand is fine as the hero’s buddy. Kusuma Degalamarri is good as the heroine’s friend who is also a righteous girl.

Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the film is realistic. All lead characters in the film are flawed. They behave immaturely due to lack of maturity in that age. It’s a brave attempt by the director Sai Rajesh to pen such a kind of story which is realistic and is devoid of any cinematic touch. The director narrated the first half of the film in a leisure manner with montages, conversations and background songs. The actual conflict point reveals the interval. The interval point is going to cast a shadow on the heroine's character. Second half starts in a confusion mode with the way the heroine behaves and makes some unpopular decisions. The confusing characterisation of the heroine perplexes you from interval onwards. Viraj's character is shown as a little manipulative in the film and it's difficult to believe that he too is a sincere lover. There are some hard-hitting moments in the film. There are some scenes where you feel pain for Anand’s character. Sai Rajesh succeeded in making us emotionally invested in characters. But, the final portions of the film look extended (once the equation among the three lead characters is revealed). One must appreciate Sai Rajesh for sticking to what he believed in rather than adding entertainment.

Other departments: Highlight of the film is music scored by Vijay Bulganin. All songs are good with ‘rendu meghaalila’ being the best. Background music is also good and you can see the inspiration of Ilayaraja in his work. Another best thing about the film is the dialogues written by the director Sai Rajesh. They are hard-hitting and raw. There are cuss words and unfiltered language. But they are effective. Cinematography by M N Balreddy is very good. Production design is authentic. Editing by Viplav Nyshadam is fine. Production Values by Mass Movie Makers are very good.

Analysis: Baby is not a regular feel good love story. It’s a film with flawed characters and realism. It’s harsh and unpopular in some aspects. However, if you look at the age and background of the lead characters, they behave just the way teenagers behave. Immaturely and instinctively. If audiences can prepare themselves with this mindset, then you will go with the flow. If you are thinking that you are watching a feel-good romantic story, this is not for you. This film is studded with identifiable scenes for youth (especially boys). Baby definitely engages its targeted audiences (youth). For other audiences, one has to watch from a realistic perspective and with an open mind. This film has the potential to make money because of the patronage of the target audiences.