Paa is made by R. Balki who has penned the offbeat hit Cheeni Kum. He takes to direction with Auro which is as impressive as his first film. Paa movie review…
Auro (Amitabh Bachchan) is an intelligent, witty 13 year old boy with an extremely rare genetic defect that causes accelerated ageing.
He suffers from a progeria like syndrome. Progeria is a debilitating disease where the child ages rapidly beyond his age. Kids affected by this problem lose all their hair, become bald and their veins begin to show prominently on their heads, which enlarge to a size beyond normal. Their teeth and eyes suffer also.
Mentally he is 13, very normal, but physically he looks 5 times older. In spite of his condition, Auro is a very happy boy. He lives with his mother Vidya (Vidya Balan) who is a gynecologist.
Amol Arte (Abhishek Bachchan) is a young progressive and a full of ideals politician. He is out to prove to the world that ‘politics’ is not a bad word. He is a man with a mission.
Auro is Amol’s son. Paa is a rare story about a father-son, son-father relationship.
Paa has its moments that touch you, move you, moments that try to make you cry, and then that make you laugh, that make you feel warm Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role delivers a sweet performance, Abhishek and Vidya Balan are honest to their characters. The music is simple.
Abhishek Bachchan as a gen-next politician and he connects well. And more impressive performance is by Vidya Balan who portrays a strong, independent, modern Indian woman, and most importantly – a mother in Paa.
As for Auro’s character, this writer would honestly give maximum credit to the Prosthetic Make up artists rather than to the actor. No doubt, Amitabh has pitched in a yet another memorable performance, yet this is shadowed by the impressive and extraordinary efforts by Christien Tinsley and Dominie Till who wonderfully created the character of Auro – a complement which sportingly comes from Amitabh himself.
The first half of Paa is about Auro’s Maa and the second half is about Auro’s Paa. There are times when the viewer feels that a 12 year old boy thinks and speaks like a guy double his age. The film could have been made shorter by about half an hour.
Cast of Paa:
Amitabh Bachchan – Auro
Abhishek Bachchan – Auro’s father
Vidya Balan – Vidya Auro’s mother
Paresh Rawal – Vidya’s father
Arundhati Naag – Vidya’s mother
Kids in the film Paa:
Taruni Sachdeva
Pratik Katare
Nimit Dhaiya
Varun Shukla
Dhurvin Doshi
Karan Bhiwandker
Gaurav Bajaj
Satyajit Sharma
Jagdish Purohit
Divya Bhatia
Credits & Crew of Paa:
Producers – AB Corp, Reliance Big Pictures, Sunil Manchanda
Writer and Director – R. Balki
Associate Director – Vishal Gehani
Executive Producer – Jitendra Bagga, Anita
Editor – Anil Naidu
Lyricst – Swanand Kirkire
Music Director – Ilaiya Raja
Cinematographer – PC Sreeram
Assistant Writer – Rishi Virmani
Prosthetic Make up – Christien Tinsley, Dominie Till
Sound Designer – Tapas
Art Director – Sunil Babu
Casting Director – Richa Kapur
Assistant Editor – Nayan Haresh Badra
Assistant Directors – Jagan Shakti, Ranjit Govind, Abhishek Dogra, Sugandha Mehrotra
Assistant Cameramen – Sathyanarayanan, M.S. Vivekanand, Arvind P Gandhi, Sreerama Santosh, Sivakumar Vijayan, Yuvraj Vivek, Kartik Venkatraman
Prosthetic Make up – Christien Tinsley, Dominie Till
Costume Designers – Sabyasachi Mukherjee, AkkiNarula, Falguni Thakore, Vijeyata Manchanda, Rahul Agasti
Production Manager – Gangadhar Thosar
Assistant Stylist – Nikita Shah (Aki Narula), Chetna Shah (Falguni Thakore)
Post Production Assistant – Nikki Anand
Production Assistant – Sachin Bagul
Art Assistants – Ashwini Kale, Apurwa Sondhi, Jinal Mehta, Madhura Gokam, S. Ramakrishna, Srreeroop Sundar.
Associate Art Director – Vaishnavi Reddy
Line Producer – Swanand Marathe
Stills – Gene Gualdi
Paa, movie review