Unconvincing Performance and Undeserved Award

Paa is the story of Auro, a boy with a rare genetic defect called Progeria, due to which physically he looks like an old man but mentally, he is only 12 years old. The real life father and son, Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan have switched roles in the movie.




Given that Amitabh Bachchan achieved the Best Actor Award for this role, I was intrigued by this movie and decided to watch it. However, I was extremely disappointed. Conceptually the story was good but unfortunately, the screenplay was weak, especially the school scenes and Auro's dialogues.

There were parts of the movie that were good such as the portrayal of how the media sometimes misconstrues the truth. The movie also showed that men are eager to have sex but don't want to take responsibility for the result of having unprotected sex because they think a child will be a hurdle in the achievement of their life goals. The part about progeria was clearly inspired by the 1996 Hollywood movie, Jack, in which Robin Williams played the role of a 10-year old boy who ages faster due to Werner syndrome, an aging disease similar to Progeria. Robin Williams was much more convincing in Jack than Amitabh Bachchan in Paa.

I think Abhishek Bachchan did a much better job than his real life father. He looked very handsome and portrayed his character as a "good" politician and Auro's father well. Vidya Balan also portrayed the role of Auro's mother well.

It makes me really upset that Aamir Khan, who did an excellent job in 3 Idiots, was robbed of the Best Actor Award because of Amitabh, who was not even that convincing as Auro. Yes, perhaps his make up artists deserved an award because his look was completely transformed but I don't think his performance was anything out of the ordinary and definitely not award-worthy. Obviously I don't know the inner workings of the Bollywood industry so I can only speculate but here's what I think happened. Since Aamir Khan doesn't attend award functions, the jury decided to give Big B the award because he is very well-respected in the industry as he was a legend at one point of time. Yes, at one point of time, not anymore.

Now the big stars in Bollywood are Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan. Aamir Khan is by far the best actor in Bollywood at this point in time because his films are always unique. I became an SRK fan after Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge but like I mentioned in my previous blog, I think he has mostly been type cast. I have new found respect for him after Rab Ne Bana De Jodi  and My Name is Khan because those were two movies in which he truly showed his acting skills.

I think Amitabh Bachchan should have gracefully retired from the industry a long time ago. I don't know why he keeps insisting on doing stupid roles that don't even suit him. Isn't it time he let his son, Abhishek, have the lime light rather than sharing it with him? Or if he still wants to work, why can't he do roles that are more appropriate for his age such as father roles like Rishi Kapoor and Anupam Kher?

It's sad that 3 Idiots scored most of the awards including Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Director, but did not win the Best Actor award, which Aamir Khan truly deserved. Yes, the screenplay, the direction, and the film overall was excellent, but what is the main reason people saw the movie especially on the opening weekend? No doubt, it was Aamir. It was his fans who knew that he would not disappoint them and therefore, they went to the see the movie. I'm sure a lot of people don't even know who Vidhu Vinod Chopra (producer) or Rajkumar Hirani (director) is but people for sure know who Aamir is. By not giving Aamir the Best Actor award, I feel like the industry is implying that he was not the reason behind the huge success of the film, when in fact he was.