All the hype that has been created in the media about PAA being a story of a child dealing with a problem called Progeria which has only 400 registered cases in the world, expectation among the general public was that it would be a film which would be on the same lines to Taare Zameen Par(film depecting a life of dyslexic child) i.e. high on emotional quotient.
Surprise surprise! R Balki surprises you yet again after his previous flick Cheeni Kum by his unbeatable sensible art of film making. Most of the filmmakers would have a chosen to include emotional scenes in the film, but Balki chose a different path. He instead chooses humor as his film’s USP to depict all the scene in a subtle manner.
The story is all about Auro(Abhitabh Bachchan) where you tend to forget that there exist Amitabh Bachchan behind that make up. HATS OFF TO make up man Stephen Dupuse, Christine Timble, Domenic. It took them 5 hours to get such a make up and the make up lasted only 6 hours. Adding to the woes of make up team was the fact that it took them 2 hours to remove the makeup. But atlast their efforts paid off.
Auro is a happy go lucky child who is well aware of his disease and takes all the care of himself as a responsible boy. Vidya Balan plays Auro’s mother with utmost ease. She is single parent and takes care of her child along with her mother. Instead on focusing on the problem of progeria, the director has shown him as a normal child of 11 years old who wishes to see Rashtrapati Bhawan but just to satisfy his ego he refuses to go in there too. Truly amazing spectacle.
Amol Arte(Abhishek Bachchan) plays Auro’s Father who is a successful politician but is unaware of the fact that aura is his child. Talk of the town was also that the role of Abhishek is being inspired by famous congress MP Sachin Pilot which never seemed far from reality if one goes by his styling in the film. Nevertheless, he does full justice to his role along with Paresh Rawal who adds that extra spice to the film.
Here I would like to mention the two most interesting scene in the film, 1st being when Abhishek takes on the media giving them the taste of their own medicine and 2nd one being the sweet little fight between Abhishek and Auro. The child artist including Auro’s best friend Vishnu does a great deal of help to this film, with excellent comic timings of these kids.
Although film disappoint on one aspect and that is the music. Illayaraja fails to recreate the magic of Cheeni Kum. Although cinematographer, P C Sreeram does a fantastic job by capturing all the minute sequences along with the natural beauty of Delhi.
All in all, PAA definitely deserves accolades for being a film not only depicting a problem but in a more rational approach avoiding all the rona dhona.