There is no there there

“Some books are to be tasted; others to be swallowed; and some few to be chewed and digested,” wrote Francis Bacon. Had we applied this metaphor to films, R. Balki’s Paa would squarely fall into the second category that includes many other well-meaning but misleading films whose basic premise of being different is lost in the formulaic execution that typifies mainstream Bollywood movies. This is not to say that Paa is a bad movie – it’s a good film done badly. A story centring on a progeric child holds a lot of potential for honest filmmaking, but adman-turned-filmmaker Balki uses the genetic disorder for purely cosmetic purposes.

After sitting through the 130 minutes of Paa, the average viewer is struck by one simple question: Why did the director choose progeria as the condition of his 13-year-old central character Auro? Would the story lose a lot if it were brain cancer or AIDS or any other fatal illness? In such a hypothetical situation, the director wouldn’t have needed Amitabh Bachchan to sign on for Auro, nor would he have to hire Hollywood make-up artists to titivate his lead actor for 6/7 long hours daily. Auro is progeric not so much because Balki is keen on exploring the travails of such a child. Rather, it’s because the director wants to “introduce” the 68-year-old Amitabh Bachchan as a 13-year-old. Thus, a gleeful Jaya Bachchan’s “And introducing Amitabh Bachchan” in the opening credits is a clear pointer to the extra-large hype around Paa.

The fact remains, however, that Paa is not about Auro. It’s ultimately about his unmarried parents’ love days in London, and how his condition brings the estranged lovers together in Lucknow and gets them to agree to a ritual marriage in a hospital room. Auro dies but his parents reunite. Ah, a typical Bollywood love story!

Two years back, in Taare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan and Amol Gupte dealt with an eight-year-old boy’s problem with learning. The critical success of TZP depended largely on its honest focus on the protagonist’s condition and the issues attendant upon it. The problem with Paa, on the other hand, is that it diverts its focus from the much-hyped progeric Amitabh Bachchan to a motley mix of social, political and proverbially Bollywood themes. Vidya (Balan), a gynaecologist by profession, is a courageous single mother of a child born out of wedlock. Amol Arte (Abhishek Bachchan) is a righteous politician who doesn’t scruple to use the national broadcaster DD to lecture his country people about honesty, corruption, poverty, etc. etc. etc. Predictably enough, these two virtuous souls make love in foreign locations and in steps our progeric protagonist Auro.

Big B does a good job as Auro. However, it’s his make-up artists who deserve two thumbs up for his impeccable transformation from a bearded sexagenarian to a bald teenager suffering from progeria. Abhishek and Vidya are passable. As Amol’s father, Paresh Rawal provides occasional comic relief. But then again, one wonders why the director put all the jokes in Auro’s mouth.

“Paa is not about progeria,” said Abhishek. In fact, the film fails to be about anything in particular, or in the hallowed tradition of commercial Bollywood cinema, it’s about everything in general. It seems progeria was but an excuse for Balki to make Abhishek play his paa’s paa. A very plausible one, indeed.


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