'Paa' is a bold prosthetic and story-telling move for R. Balki, who has previously given us many disappointing feel-good films. The film may be called the one with the weakest first half this year: with a lack of subtlety and abundance of sugary, sappy melodramatic plot devices, the film's first half is genuinely disappointing.
But surprise is that the second half makes uo for all its sins. It's surprisingly all heart and convincing. The film is applause-worthy for its intent alone, but it has no dearth of content too.
The film starts off as a star show, but eventually you do explore that it is about a genuine expression of relationship between a mother and a child. This makes and holds the film. Vidya Balan as Paa's mother is amazingly vulnerable and especially promising. The running backstory of infidelity involving her and her husband (played by Abhishek Bachchan) is clumsy, but it is whole lot structural.
I am going with 3 stars of 5 for 'Paa'. Amitabh Bachchan may be the timid child here, but no one but he is rock solid in the whole film.