4. A movie that makes you sad
I don't think there is a film that is more of a perfect tearjerker than Paa out there in the world. It completely caught me off-guard in how it tugged at every heart-string I had, and how strongly it made me buy into the premise that should've perhaps been a little too hard to swallow (mainly the gimmick-y idea that here was Amitabh Bachchan playing the son to his own son, Abhishek). But somehow the film pulls it off brilliantly. The plot is Hindi films' stock-in-trade of a family coming together after being separated, but the how's and why's of the story are just well-told and the performances lift the story into major tearjerker territory.
Everything from the love story between Abhishek and Vidya Balan's characters to the father-son relationship just makes me weep. I was a complete mess after watching the film; so much so I haven't dared to rewatch it. I suppose it's a bit of a misnomer to say this is a film that makes me sad - sometimes you cry because something is touching, or precious, or beautiful, or finally happening. It's only part of the time that you in cry in Paa because it's making you sad.
For truly, truly depressing cinema, I tend to go for Tamil director Bala's hopeless brand of cinema, but for a tearjerker, Paa is unbeatable for me.
2 comments:
To be honest, I'd written this film off because of the gimmicky idea, though I was certainly intrigued. I still haven't seen it, but I certainly plan to!
It's a surprisingly well-made movie with great performances. This is possibly the first Vidya Balan film where her performance just makes one go "wow!".
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