If you feel something’s problematic in Baby, it’s likely that the film will address it through a character. This allows the film to undo a lot of choices that might come across as inappropriate early on in the film. And yes, there’s a lot of inappropriate stuff on display because the characters themselves are flawed and toxic.
The three main characters, Anand, Vaishnavi, and Viraj, are imperfect beings driven by mad love with their every mistake, regardless of how good their intention might be, making the plot thicker and murkier. Although the early, sweet school sequence that tracks the origins of Anand and Vaishnavi’s love story makes you wish the couple gets a ‘happily ever after’ ending, even though you know it’s not going to be an easy road, the film makes it particularly hard to pick a side. The beauty of Baby is that nothing exists in simple black and white, everything is grey. Be it Anand, Vaishnavi, or Viraj, Sai Rajesh’s writing lets you see through their personalities. We know that Anand is a control freak, but we also know that he cares for Vaishnavi. We are also aware that Vaishnav loves gifts, cars, and the ‘rich’ stuff. Anand seeking physical intimacy, a ‘kiss’ from Vaishnavi, is a recurring point in the film, but when Vaishnavi agrees to it (you have to check out the film to know why she agrees), he steps back because he believes she is too innocent to be intimate with him. This might be played for laughs in the film, to juxtapose his ‘character’ with Vaishnavi’s, but you see this man’s intent. He’s the same guy who assassinated her character and broke her heart by saying the nastiest things earlier. You see, Baby urges that people, at least its main characters, can be many things and doesn’t compartmentalise them morally.
Likewise, Vaishnavi, who is central to the film, is forced to make many difficult choices in the film that affect Anand, her childhood sweetheart Anand and the college hunk Viraj, who comes across as an underwritten but interesting character nevertheless. While it begins as a familiar love triangle, the whole Viraj-Vaishnavi angle is dealt with in a super interesting way that never judges Vaishnavi. She keeps asserting that she would like to keep their relationship purely platonic while he relentlessly keeps pursuing her romantically. Viraj eventually puts Vaishnavi in a spot where she has to do something so ‘unfaithful’ against her wish; he does it by threatening her, meaning that he is not a ‘good’ person. But later on, we see even Viraj pining for Vaishnavi, even after causing her great sorrow and turning her life upside down. That’s only the tip of the iceberg.