The rushes of ‘Paa’ reminded me of the early days when there was a cutout of a new brand look of Amitabh Bachchan aka AURO in one of the leading national newspaper’s city edition. It was a thrilling moment for me particularly. It made me realize that Amitabh Bachchan’s golden era still continues, wherein he is getting very different roles every now and then, that too challenging ones in his late sixties. I wonder whether anyone other than Bachchan in Hindi film industry will ever get a chance to do full fledged roles when they will reach their seniority as Mr. Bachchan is today.
Having said that, it’s a lifetime dream for any upcoming filmmaker(s) to exploit the creative talent’s of Bachchan to the extremes and R Balki is one of the few successful ones. His first venture, a light romantic ‘Cheeni Kum’ with Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu in the lead pair was received well which later eventually is followed by his next with again Mr. Amitabh Bachchan as AURO in the movie ‘PAA’.
The starting credits have been kept simple with soulful melody by the maestro IlaiyaRaaja Sir. But it was very odd rather strange to see Jaya Bachchan narrating the credits which I felt was not creatively done. I doubted whether the movie is about blindness or progeria or maybe the producer (Abhishek Bachchan) wanted her mother’s blessing before the actual start.
One of the best part of this movie, apart from AURO, are the dialogues. It has been kept concise, witty, thoughtful and not preachy. This aspect is easily noticeable in the first half which has brought the lost clean humor back and it was the first time for me to experience that the entire crowd in the cinema hall sharing the same opinion, as for most of the witty lines the hall was getting very louder.
The technical aspects of PAA are above par. Be it the frames of PC Sriram or the cuts of Anil Naidu. The good thing the director has done with PAA is that he didn’t focused the grim side of this disease progeria, as many films show the grim side if the plot is about a prime character who is diseased. Also the film does not show the optimistic side as to how to fight an incurable disease. Rather it selects the realistic way to show the feelings of the diseased character’s ‘AURO’ lookout towards his friends, mother, grandmother and his PAA.
There are many scenes in PAA which I will carry for some time after watching this film. Like the only scene between Amitabh and Paresh Rawal. I rate this scene as the best. Then there is a telephonic conversation scene between Amitabh and his classmate, wherein his classmate friend Vishnu brings out the sheer frustration of having a father who tries to nag him every now and then is simple fabulous and superbly executed. Also the climax scene between Amitabh and Abhishek is very touching when Amitabh realizes Abhishek about one of the prime mistakes in his life and many more scenes.
The music by IlaiyaRaaja Sir is very commendable, the background score adds more flavors to the scenes. But I would go for Cheeni Kum as his best music, as it had some great compositions and some great renditions by Shreya Ghoshal.
Acting wise Paresh Rawaal has done it again, actually Paresh has joined in good safe hands after Priyadarshan’s faltering experiments on Paresh since Hera Pheri. Vidya Balan has shown respectful potential to portray the maturity of her role. Even Arundhati Nag has delivered a stunner. Watch her especially when she answers the phone call of her to be son-in-law. Abhishek looks very rigid in this role, he’s been the disappointing factor for me from the ensemble cast. For emotional scenes he seem to very stiff rather he should have let loose. The school kids have been a surprise package, they were just too good especially Vishnu!
Then comes AURO, the movie belongs to one and only Amitabh Bachchan, he has completely transformed himself to AURO a 12 year kid. He tampered his voice, changed his looks, changed the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he expresses when he gets his hands on the Playstation. SPEECHLESS! Simply sensational and different.
I am not going to rate this movie, as I am not entitled to rate a movie of this caliber based on an artist like Amitabh Bachchan. On the contrary, am blessed that I belong to a generation wherein I can see a old man in the late sixties fighting his heart out with the today’s young guns in a very ethical way.
A must watch for film enthusiasts and buddying actors (including the current top film stars). It’s like a golden opportunity to learn/unlearn the art of acting from the institution itself near your cinema theatres.
