Auro, the young boy with progeria, is played by Indian superstar actor, Amitabh Bachchan. According to IMDB, Bachchan has been in 188 films since 1969. Auro being played by Mr. Bachchan would be akin to the same character being played by Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, or Robert DeNiro. For the first thirty minutes of the film, I could not tell if Auro was being played by an adult or a child actor. I finally gave in and looked it up on IMDB and found that he was being played by this superstar actor. Bachchan is quite good as Auro and even though I am not terribly familiar with his body of work, I could still not tell that it was an adult actor underneath all the makeup. Auro is played by Bachchan with the right amount of childlikeness and only a few times does the character seem like he is approaching leaning towards slapstick. Thankfully, Bachchan and the script reign in any tendencies for taking the character of Auro to such an unfortunate extreme. The film has a mostly dramatic tone as it should. There is some humor in the film, however, the film, overall, is not played for laughs.
“Paa” does contain some social statements as the character of Amol (Auro’s father) does become an important politician and is fighting to turn some of India’s worst slums into nicer areas in which to live for the people who are already living there. It is his goal to make the wealthy people of India aware of the fact that the people living in slums should be able to live in a cleaner, more hospitable environment. Most reading this may already know that it seems to be a mandate that all Indian films contain a certain amount of singing and dancing scenes. Fortunately, “Paa” contains what must be the bare minimum amount of such scenes. This is not a film that lends itself to the song and dance numbers that populate many Indian films. In some films, it works very well. In “Paa,” though few, such scenes in the film slow down the action to a complete halt and seem added in just because that is what is expected in Indian films. I do understand the fact that Indian films tend to contain many song and dance numbers that extend the running times of films so as to give the audience more movie for their money. Many people in India do not have a lot of money so they appreciate being able to get a lot out of the money they spend on going to the movies. The following explanation of why Bollywood films are long is from www.thebollywoodticket.com:
“For starters, Indians are used to longer forms of entertainment. Cricket matches last for days. So do Indian weddings. A three-hour movie isn’t long at all in comparison. Also, Indians tend to be value-conscious. They expect a full afternoon or evening of entertainment for the price of a ticket. But the biggest reason Bollywood films are long is artistic. The time commitment required of the audience heightens their emotional investment in the story. (The same is true of operas, which are often as long or even longer than Hindi films.) The effect can be powerfully moving, even for Americans accustomed to shorter films. Bollywood movies are getting shorter, though, mostly because there are fewer musical numbers than there used to be. While three and a half hours was once typical, three hours or less is now the norm.”
While all of this is true, it does not take away the fact that the extended song and dance scenes in many Indian films are superfluous. This is the main reason why I have not gravitated towards Indian films. I do enjoy long films, however, if the subject matter of such films does not peak my interest, I will not watch them. “Paa” happened to peak my interest as I have not encountered any film from any country about a boy with progeria, much less a film in which said boy is played by an adult. “Paa” is a comparatively brief 135 minutes, thanks largely to the fact that it seems to contain the minimum amount of song and dance scenes.
The way in which the film is edited is a bit of a hindrance. In most films, if the director or editor wanted to show a character moving from one end of a room to the other, the camera would simply follow that character walking from one side to the other, or, perhaps cut from one character to another or cut from the character that is moving to another object in the room, then back to the character that has moved. In our more impatient world of quick edits, the way in which some scenes in “Paa” are edited may appeal to some audiences. In some scenes, the way in which a character is shown moving from one place to another is done with quick edits, and even quick fade-ins, that do not show us anything different onscreen other than the fact that the character has moved a few steps. Though I did notice all this, it is distracting in a negative way. The story in “Paa” is interesting enough, though, so that my annoyance at this editing style did not distract me too much from the action of the film. Despite the unnecessarily annoying editing contained within, I recommend you check out “Paa” and experience something a bit different than the average, ordinary Hollywood film. It is available on Netflix Instant Streaming.
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