Urvashi is fantastic, as an emotional mother, in the J Baby teaser, details inside

J Baby is bankrolled by Pa Ranjith's home banner, Neelam Productions

A collage of actors in Urvashi's J Baby

Filmmaker Pa Ranjith, who unveiled the first look poster of his upcoming project, Vettuvam, at the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, had announced a five-film slate with Golden Ratio Films and Little Red Car Films. Samuthirakani's Writer (streaming on aha Tamil) was the first of the lot. The second is J Baby, featuring Urvashi, Dinesh and Maaran. The trailer of the Suresh Mari-directorial venture is out. J Baby is his debut film.

According to Suresh, a former associate of Venkat Prabhu, J Baby is a family drama with a good dose of comedy and sentiment. It's a story about a mother and her two sons. We shot extensively in and around Chennai and Kolkata."

Also, he has assisted Ranjith on Kabali and Kaala.

Urvashi plays a mother; the titular character. She gets lost and her sons, played by Dinesh and Maaran, go in search of her. What happens forms the rest of the story. Besides these three main actors, J Baby will feature several fresh faces.

While the cinematography is by Jayanth Sethu Mathavan of Baaram-fame, the music score is by Tony Britto of Koorman-fame.

Talking about casting the three actors, Suresh tells Silverscreen, “I couldn’t have found anyone better than Urvashi ma’am to take on this role, as she can adapt well to all genres, even comedy. Dinesh has a sense of innocence to him and he is an excellent actor. Maran is often seen in comic roles, so I thought it would be different to cast him in a more serious character role.”

Apart from this film, Ranjith will also be producing films by Mari Selvaraj, Akiran Moses, and Lenin Bharathi, according to a report by Cinema Express.

Cinematographer Jayanth Sethu Mathavan tells Silverscreen, "Most of the film was shot in live locations. This meant we could not go for many retakes. However, the actors cooperated a lot and we had many rehearsals during the pre-production with the cast members. During this time, we decided on basic camera movements, which was very helpful for the actual shoot."

Jayanth, further, adds, “We have tried to incorporate more of an observational approach with realistic shots. Since the film involves travel, most of the scenes feature handheld shots, so that it looks like the camera is travelling with them. In terms of lighting, we have used the light available on location rather than anything stylised to go with the mood of the story.”

Meanwhile, Ranjith is best known for directing acclaimed Tamil films including Sarpatta Parambarai, Madras, and Rajinikanth-starrer Kaala, and Kabali.

Ranjith is going to make his Bollywood debut with the film Birsa. The action drama film will go on floors by the end of this year. Produced by Shareen Mantri and Kishor Arora under Namah Pictures, the film is a biopic based on the life of Birsa Munda, a tribal leader from Jharkhand who stood up to British colonial oppressors in the 19th century.

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