Paa (2009)

A politician's relationship with his unusually developed son - the child suffers from a disease that causes him to age rapidly, rendering him an old man.

Director:

R. Balki

Writer:

R. Balki

Stars:

Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan

6 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Amitabh Bachchan	...	Auro
Abhishek Bachchan	...	Amol Arte
Vidya Balan	...	Dr. Vidya
Paresh Rawal	...	Mr. Arte
Arundathi Nag	...	Vidya's mother
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Saurabh Agarwal	...	(as Saurabh Aggarwal)
Shikha Arora	...	Woman in Park
Rupali Arte
Jaya Bhaduri	...	Narrator
Divya Bhatia
Karan Bhiwandiker
Sanjay Chauhan
Nimmit Daiya	...	Abhishek
Ramakant Dayma	...	Amol's Secretary (as Ramakant Dayama)
Dhruvin Doshi

Storyline

Auro (Amitabh Bachchan) is an intelligent and witty 13-year-old boy with an extremely rare genetic defect that causes accelerated aging. He suffers from a progeria-like syndrome. Mentally he is 13, very normal, but physically he looks five 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 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.

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Plot Keywords:

progeria | child protagonist | rapid aging | grown man playing child | parenthood | 

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Taglines:

A very rare father-son son-father story...

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

4 December 2009 (USA)

Box Office

Budget:

INR 150,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$199,228 (USA) (4 December 2009)

Gross:

$199,228 (USA) (4 December 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (A.B.C.L.), Mad Entertainment, Reliance Big Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

133 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the second time Amitabh Bachchan draws inspiration from a Robin Williams film. The first was Aladdin, which inspired Bachchan's performance as Genius in Aladin. This film was inspired by Jack, which stared Williams in the eponymous title.

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Goofs

During the "Mudi Mudi" song sequence covering Vidya and Amol's meeting and courtship in Cambridge, there are a number of close-ups of Brasenose Lane. Brasenose Lane is in Oxford, not Cambridge.

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Crazy Credits

Although Amitabh Bachchan is a superstar, the opening credits read as 'introducing Amitabh Bachchan'.

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Connections

Referenced in Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Gumm Summ Gumm"
Written by Swanand Kirkire
Composed by Ilayaraja
Performed by Shravan Rathod and Bhavatharani R.
Courtesy of Super Cassettes Industries Limited (T-Series)

User Reviews

The story of Auro, a 13-year old boy suffering from progeria. And the story of his Maa, and Paa. In true Bollywood style.

Imagine this. R Balki arrives with his second film after Cheeni Kum (2007), starring Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan, Paresh Rawal and introducing a twelve-year old child actor. We do not know this kid, although it is possible that he impresses us all after we see him perform. But does this essentially guarantee a bumper opening for the movie? Can we safely assume that the audience will come into the theatres? Now, take this. The entire cast and crew remains the same. And although it is indeed possible to find an immensely talented child artist and create the desired character using prosthetic make-up and voice modulation, the director decides to cast Amitabh Bachchan as the child. And he calls the film Paa. The result is for us to see, in the form of one of the most smartly promoted films of our time. This is what we call star power. This is what I admire about the phenomenon of a superstar. And this is what this film uses in the best possible way.

The film also uses the personality, and not the acting, of Abhishek Bachchan to create a gen-next politician, and we connect. It uses Vidya Balan to portray a strong, independent, modern Indian woman, and most importantly – a mother; and we connect. And it utilizes the human curiosity for the weird, our tendency to look at 'freaks' with wide eyes and held breaths, and converts that 'freak' into a warm, lovable and memorable character called Auro, and takes us into his world. It uses songs, melodrama and the Bollywood cliché to tell a story. It relies on the time-tested formula of emotional manipulation and succeeds in making the audience cry. It has decent production values, is marketed smartly and sold at cheap rates. The result is not a great, timeless, flawless piece of art. The result is a film that knows how to use the illusion of the medium. The result is a movie that moves.

The best thing about Paa is that it knows what it is doing. It does not claim to be 'socially relevant', and does not ask us to leave our brains home before coming to the theatres. Instead it asks us to bring our brains, our hearts, our entire selves, not excluding the 'curiosity for the weird' that we all have but fail to accept. It treats itself as a film for everyone, and successfully creates an entertaining cinema experience. In its attempt, it often gets inconsistent, but it never seems uncertain. It is an innovation, and yes, that it is, which is sure of itself, including how to sell itself. It is an innovation that does not go wasted, and that is indeed an achievement in the Hindi film scenario of today.

It has been a few decades now and Hindi cinema is desperately in the need for revival. For that to happen, if it ever happens, we need socially relevant cinema, we need cinema as works of art, we even need cinema with an international appeal, and with the guts to experiment . But what we need most is innovative ideas, true to Hindi cinema sensibility and tradition, not necessarily great in the absolute cinema-sense, but films which make people come, watch and connect. We need more films like Paa. I have no idea about how it is going to fare at the box-office. If it is a commercial success, my point would be proved beyond doubt. If it fails, well, I will try my best not to lose hope.