Weighted from a 7.4 average · Why?
Bachchan's stunning transformation as Auro carries this warm, restrained film home.
Verdict tier Recommended, most critics liked it, on a scale of Unfavorable, Mixed, Recommended, Exceptional.
Not streaming in India
Critic consensus
Critical reception for Paa is broadly positive, with reviewers consistently highlighting Amitabh Bachchan's transformative performance as the film's central achievement — particularly his ability to shed his iconic screen presence and voice to fully inhabit the child Auro. Director R. Balki is also widely commended for crafting a film that balances intelligence, entertainment, and emotional restraint without sliding into melodrama. The most common criticism is that the film's narrative commitment to its subject feels incomplete, with at least one critic arguing the story should have been more deeply devoted to Auro's condition rather than broader dramatic concerns. A few reviewers also note that certain humorous or emotional passages feel laboured.
1 not-rated review isn't plotted
The Monk Score is weighted from a plain average of 7.4 · how scores work
Positive = 6.5/10 and up · negative = below 5/10
AI-generated summary of 6 critic reviews · may contain errors
Report inaccuracyFrom the papers
Top critics first, then by score · not-rated last · updated
Film review ·
Some might fear Paa would be a depressing, melodramatic film or a shadow of 2005's heavily emotional Black. It's not, and neither does it have any link to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button...R Balki outdoes himself with a film that's intelligent, entertaining and visually arresting. It's indeed a pleasure presenting four stars to a film after years. You don't want to miss this one.
Film review ·
For the longest time now, I've been waiting for an Amitabh film that I really enjoyed. Finally, it's here. I wouldn't want to adjoin any more superlatives to his performance and the challenges he must have faced in getting it all right, I would want you to go and find out for yourself.
Film review ·
There's the nation's best-known actor, without his best-known assets: his deep voice, and his deadly presence. Amitabh entirely trades off his screen aura for a child-geriatric Auro. Mainline audiences can't be used to this. They're likely to laugh or leave. Surprisingly, they'll laugh at the intended notes, and leave, quite satisfied actually. Therein lies the film's grandest achievement.
Film review ·
Sometimes, films like 'Paa' does make Bollywood stand upright with honour. Hats off to filmmaker Balakrishnan!! Amitabh owes a lot to this auteur for delineating his persona with new-fangled dimensions. An ad filmmaker would usually overflow with creative quotients and Balki seems to posses them in excess. The filmmaker surpasses his 'Paa' setting asunder with other Hindi films based on various disorders and emotional relationships.
Film review ·
Behind the fine prosthetic make-up, it's virtually impossible to recognise Bachchan or his trademark baritone. The actor tempers his voice into an endearing wispy tone with a slight accent, almost as if an inebriated Anthony Gonsalves was dreamily mumbling in his sleep. Coming to Auro, the heart, beat, soul, spice and sweeping factor of this film, he doesn't need any warming up to. Big B's Auro wins you over the moment he makes his bouncy entry in the assembly hall to grab a prize for his 'fluke' creativity.
Film review ·
In treatment and characterization, Paa has a certain breeziness and a brand of humour which, although awkward and laboured in parts, tries to remind us that life is worth living even when it sucks. It reaffirms the same positivity canon that many mainstream Hollywood films exploit while depicting disease and death. Francis Ford Coppola's Jack and Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump are just two examples. But despite the good, Paa should just have been Auro's story; it should have been a story more deeply committed to the child—and other children like him—and his unique condition.
From our readers
2 ratings · user score 7.0
'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.
Credits
Amitabh BachchanAuro
Abhishek BachchanAmol Arte
Vidya BalanVidya Arte
Paresh RawalMr. Arte
Arundathi NagVidya's mother
Jaya BachchanNarrator
Taruni SachdevAuro's classmate
Satyajit SharmaJaikirt
R. Balki
IlaiyaraajaHindi films like Paa
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