Paa - Xtra ordinary Movie with Ordinary Story

On 4th of Dec I happened to watch much awaited film 'Paa' at Inox, Baroda, Gujarat.  Paa is a story of a child suffering from a very rare genetic disease known as 'Progeria', (for more details click here) it is explained in the film that there are only 40-50 cases which were genuienly idendified world over, and in the film, character 'Auro' suffers from progeria, performed brilliantly by Big Boss of Bollywood - 'Amitabh Bachan', a world class performance by Big B and in no way we get bored, infact audience were in alert mode on seeing Auro on the screen,  eager to watch for his next hilarious witty dialogue intelligently penned by Director R Balkrishnan (Balki) finely blended with the story, a simple one though, the last of such intelligent hilarious comedy I ve seen was in 'Kamal Hasan's -Sati Lilavati'.  Vidya Balan played a role of a caring Single Mother and a gynecologist, Abhishek Bachan as a Gen-X politician with high hopes  and a vision to change the society is upto the mark.  Vidya has given a matured performance as a caring mother, the way she explains 'Genetic Glitch' to a curious woman is fun to watch and Jr. Bachan seems to have borrowed 'Real' roles for his 'Reel' role from Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia or even from Rahul Gandhi he smartly imitated our Gen-X MP's, Paresh Raval had a small role to play but his sarcatic satire on politicians makes us glee grudgingly on them.

Watch out for Titles - Don't ever miss them, film starts with magic of 'Maestro Ilayaraja' who handled Music Direction with brilliance as usual.  BGM too had played a major role in the film through out the film 'Maestro' has showed his Musical brilliance, watch out the BGM when Abhishek takes Auro for a 'Rashtrapati Bhavan and again when children play Cricket at school, last 30 minutes it is only 'Auro' and 'BGM' that stole the show, emotions are musically captured by Maestro.  Title Music of this film is mindblowing and stands as one of his best OST which is rarely found in Hindi film music, it has an output of International standards as he is famously known for scoring such BGM's down south, being the first Asian to compose a Symphony for 'Royal Philharmonic Orchestra' London (for more details...) and the only Indian to compose Symphony and an Oratario, Maestro Ilayaraja has succesfully showed his authority that he is the only 'Master and Commander' of scoring such brilliant BGM's, film has much lesser scope for songs, and may b this is the reason why songs are not in the main theme ! though 'Mudhi Mudhi' came out well with audience.  A little dissappoint for IR fan's 'Gum Gum..'(Telugu version by Maestro, hear @ 1.02 to 1.19 it enchants U) has appeared only upto first stanza, no regrets,  we have already heard 8 versions of this song in 5 languages and one of IR's Italian performance in a music festival, but Hindi film buffs are gonna miss this enchanting piece and yeah remix version of Paa song is not there. 

P C Sreeram's camera work is excellent as usual,  the brilliant work he has shown during his stint with Maniratnam down South is again revoked in 'Paa' with Balki,  especially the RP Bhavan road, Delhi scene is superb.  A brilliant canvas of nature, emotions are captured wonderfully.  Professionally there's a lot to learn for Indian film industry from these Master's of art, especially Hindi films where mostly the superficiality rules, unlike regional cinema, I remember this sort of camera art work started from Maniratnam's  'Mounaraagam' where Camera and Music by Ilayaraja are the only roles that made this film a hit and technically acclaimed all over and went on to win Presiden'ts award.

Hindi audience have thoroughly enjoyed Maestro's OST as I have seen people coming out humming title music and yeah few ring tones too...as well hilarious dialogoues of 'Auro', especially with his Mums MUm - BUM, his friends.   Even in the climax,  the way he cuts Paresh raval  jerks of tears of rare mix, comic and pain from your eyes,  watch out for it, (Auro talks about a short time left and Paresh Raval thinking about 'Auro's' condition explains him not worry there is plenty of time he is only 13 yrs old and  will take him to US, Disney world etc., Auro looking at his Grandpa with a serious look says 'Grandpaa .... I am reminding you the time of visiting hours it is very short) such kind of scenes are spread all over the film, even in the end too.  But the last 15 minutes is a real tear jerker heard sobbing's from all the 4 directions even my wife too..My elder one asking me Papa Is 'Auro' going to die ?

Overall 'Paa' is an extra ordinary film with an ordinary story but the way Balki handled the film is praise worthy, Music is brilliant, what can we say about a person who composed a Symphony in 1990, conducted by famous Hollywood film conductor 'John Scott'(Scott has conducted scores for hollywood epics Benhur, Ten commandments, star trek [more on John Scott] (one of my collegue was asking about Ilayaraja coz he loved the ad music of 'Paa' on TV and enquiring whether he is 'Guru' of A R Rahman that is what he has read in a Gujarati paper.) Let us hope this film and their technicians are recognised for their hard work, already this film is expected to be a grosser and lauded for Big B's acting and Musical Score by Ilayaraja.

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