Film: Paa
Director: R Balki
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan
Rating: ****
Can you imagine watching an Amitabh Bachchan film and not watching Amitabh Bachchan in it? Seems impossible, doesn’t it? The towering persona and rich baritone just cannot be overlooked. But R Balki transforms the actor into Auro, replaces the baritone with the voice of an adolescent, and taps the icon’s hitherto untapped talent.
Trust me, 10 minutes into the film and you forget you are watching Amitabh Bachchan. For, Auro takes over the moment he is introduced to the viewer.
Paa is a simple film told in the most simple manner and that’s one of the prime reasons why it works. The emotions would have fallen flat had the writing been sub-standard, the execution humdrum, or the actors inferior. But, thankfully, Paa scores in all three departments, though the slum redevelopment episode is a put-off.
Let us not disrespect Balki by calling Paa a rip-off of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Jack. It’s not! Paa looks at the varied relationships minutely. It may have been publicised as a father-son film, but the women — mother and granny — play equally pivotal parts.
The first hour of Paa grips you in patches. The introduction of Auro is brilliant, but the moment the story focuses on the politician and his arch rival’s sub-plot, it goes off-track. Sure, there are some interesting sequences, but the impact isn’t mesmeric.
But the post-interval portion takes the film to dizzy heights and camouflages the defects.
The father-son bonding and the penultimate 25 minutes raise the bar. The emotional quotient is tremendous. Get ready to overhear a lot of sniffs and see a lot of moist eyes once the lights are switched on.
Balki deserves a salute for thinking out of the box and presenting Bachchan like never before. The writing may be erratic, but his handling of the emotional moments is exemplary. He will be a force to reckon with after Paa. Ilaiyaraaja’s music is soothing. PC Sreeram’s cinematography is incredible.
It would be a blunder if one missed out the contribution of the makeup artists.
Transforming the veteran into a kid must have been an arduous task and Christien Tinsley and Domini Till deserve to be complimented for making Auro look so real.
No amount of praise, adjective, and personification would do justice to Amitabh Bachchan’s performance as Auro. Sure, the icon has enthralled us with superlative performances in his four-decade career, but Paa is something else. The icon keeps surprising you at regular intervals and Paa is one of those beautiful surprises which will remain etched in your memory forever.
That doesn’t mean that the other performances get dwarfed by Auro. Sure, Paa belongs to Auro, but not once does Abhishek Bachchan dither from his position or seem inferior.
This is the hallmark of a great actor. Vidya Balan is another surprise. She takes giant strides as an actress and proves again that given the right role, she can match the best in the business.
On the whole, Paa is an amazing experience. It makes you realise two things. One, the Hindi film industry is capable of narrating fresh stories. Two, Amitabh Bachchan is truly the most accomplished actor this side of the Atlantic. Here’s a film that should strike a chord with every paa, maa… just about everyone with a heart!
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