Paa was one good movie that I have seen in a really long time. It is one of those movies that make you happy about having made a good choice in spending money.
It’s the story of a small boy with this serious condition of Progeria. Amitab has done a real justice to the role. His transformation to Auro is simply wonderful and the makeup really deserves a good applause. His body language, sound, everything shows the kind of effort that he has put into it. And it is a really memorable performance from Big B.
Vidya Balan shines as the brave and confident mother, who brings up her son all by herself. Actually the whole cast is good and the movies will be remembered for good acting.
The script is good and there are some really brilliant dialogues.
But the whole Politian act of Abhishek and those media stunts do look a bit weird and do not blend well with the rest of the movie. The kind of things that he does to regain his popularity and credibility do not look a bit original. That Doordarshan bit of the show fails to impress the audience as it would in the case of any real life politician in India. And the much publicised theme of progeria is not well developed. They could have cut the making-of-a-politian bit out and had given a bit more of importance to progeria.
The music is average. Ilayaraja’s reuse of his own tune (the famous Malayalam song Tumbi vaa ..) doesn’t sound as good. And the situation, according to me, is a bit too gloomy for a full-of-life tune like that.
The way the credits were shown is a welcome change. Jaya Bachan’s appearance there is quite pleasing and I liked the whole experiment.
And the whole story is showing the changing attitude of present day women towards life. Gone are the days when women used to wait eagerly for the Father-of-my-son and it is nice to see the change reflected in our movies. Vidya is one of those ‘choice mums’ and that part of the story was treated pretty well.
Only thing that I could not understand was why they decided to call this movie ‘Paa’. The whole story is about a boy who has a serious medical condition and is brought up by his wonderfully strong, affectionate, caring and loving mom. His dad does not even know about his existence for a long time. This man realizes that it is his son only towards the end of the movie. Alright, he does take the boy out on a trip. From what I could understand, the boy’s death came a bit faster because of his realization that his parents are not married. That fight in the school were ‘bastard’ was used, gives him a shock. All his attempts to see his parents together put a lot of strain on him both physically and mentally. I really couldn’t understand why they called the movie Paa after an irresponsible father, who is not up to a real challenge in life.
All said, Paa is a must watch. It has its share of fun filled moments and there is enough of emotion and tears.
I agree with you there. Paa is not the "father-son" movie that it's being promoted as. It is, to some extent, a search for the elusive father without whose identity, Auro is a "bastard" for the society, but certainly not centred around the tie between a father and son. It's more about the mother who goes ahead and chooses to bring this child up and the child himself who has to fight an illness and social stigma. From that perspective, the name "Paa" is not justified.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise nice work- hats off to Amitabh Bachhan
Hindi cinema, of late, has been pre-occupied or say obsessed with movies which caricature or portray 'abnormal' or/and 'diseased' lead characters. Black,Gajini,Taare zameen par,Paa,My name is khan and etc.
ReplyDeleteis this reflective of a metaphorical disease the urban middle class society is afflicted with? perhaps!
nice review sheeja. the title and its politics has its ramifications. bollywood's resolution of a climax hasn't gone beyond its hetero-sexual family unit, though. perhaps, is this the disease that the movie tries to portray?
perhaps!?
A nice review. I haven't seen the movie yet. But feel like watching as soon as possible..
ReplyDeleteI heard the "Gumsum ho kyu" song and felt they have ruined the tune to an intolerable level by pushing all that unnecessary irritating piano(i think) scores in between. I am not a music expert but i know when it hurts my ears and gives a headache! And i am a person who at times listens to rock music too. Anyone who have heard "Thumbi vaa" song will surely wonder how a musician can ruin his own creation to such a level..
Thanks guys
ReplyDelete@Gogo inspite of the 'search for the father' element, i got issues with it. May be its related to the whole way of defining your identity in relation to your dad - the absence of whom makes u a 'bastard' and a gamut of issues related to it. Reminds me of this statement I read somewhere, "Mother is a reality; father is a concept"
@Lenny let people spend some time away from superhuman and chocolate-romantic heroes to have a look at 'abnormal' and diseased heroes. I see that as a welcome change.Btw, I liked you last statement!
@Rineez That song was a real tragedy!!