Story
Amol Atre (Abhishek Bachchan) and Vidya (Vidya Balan) fall in love during their post-graduation time. Vidya becomes pregnant and Amol is not ready for the marriage yet. He suggests her to abort the child. They separate ways and Amol gets busy in politics and becomes an MP. Vidya becomes a gynaecologist. Vidya gives birth to a boy called Auro (Amitab Bachchan). He suffers from a rare disease of Progeria. Though he is a 13 year old boy, he looks like 60 year old man. Amol lost track of Vidya and is under impression that she aborted the kid. The rest of the story is all about what happens when Auro comes to know that Amol is his father.

Actors:
Amitab Bachchan: This film belongs to Amitab Bachchan. He is absolutely wonderful as Auro. He did it so well (thanks to amazing prosthetic make-up) that you wouldn’t notice AB at at all on the screen. You would only watch the character Auro. Only in a few instances (eyes during close-ups and postures in long shots) you would notice mannerisms of Big B. Altered voiced of Amitab suited Auro character very well. Amitab proves to be the PAA of all actors with this movie.

Others: Vidya Balan is magnificent as a single mother and it is one of her finest performances till date. The grittiness of a single mother and caring devotion towards her special child is projected well through her character. Abhishek Bachchan is alright as a father of special child and as a noble parliamentarian. Arundhati Naag (wife of Kannada actor Shankar Nag) is compassionate as the ‘bum’. The child actress from Cheeni Kum is cute. Paresh Rawal dons the role of Abhishek’s father and it’s a different character for him. Jaya Bachchan looks little out of place in the title cards of the movie.

Technical departments:

Story - screenplay – direction: The get-up of Auro has some resemblance to the hero character in ‘The Benjamin Button’ movie. Director Balki’s approach reminds me of Mani Ratnam’s style in his pre-Amruta years. Mani Ratnam’s Anjali and Geetanjali movies talk about death. But they show the lighter side of it than the morbid part of death. Likewise, Balki also took the brighter side of death and made the movie in light-hearted fashion. At the same time, he didn’t miss out on the feel. One would have moisture in eyes towards the climax of the movie. However, the entire movie runs on predictable screenplay. The thread of slum deviates from the main plot of the movie. Balki is the man from advertising field and he possess enormous amount of creativity which is evident from scenes like

1. White globe explanation
2. Bum-blast description
3. Poor people storming into the homes of media men
4. The one liners written for Auro character

Other technical departments: Background music by Ilayaraja is haunting and adds lot of emotion to the scenes. The songs which are mostly remixed versions of his south Indian songs are very good. Cinematography by PC Sreeram is excellent. Dialogues are witty and nicely written. Editing is little confusing towards the beginning of the movie. Make-up department deserves special appreciation.

Analysis: Paa movie has a simple story with an interesting premise. Paa title becomes relevant because the real-life father-son duo of Bachchans is doing role reversal in the movie. But the title of MAA would have been more apt as per the script. This movie has fair amount of flaws. But what matters in this movie are the performances Amitab Bachchan/Vidya Balan and the emotional quotient towards climax. For me, Balki appears more like wearing the shoes of vintage Mani Ratnam and making his kind of movies. You may watch Paa for Auro character.

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