R. Balki’s “Paa” released in 2009 was widely acclaimed both by the masses and the classes mainly because it had many “Firsts” associated with itself related to the amazing acting skills of the entire cast and the technical brilliance achieved by the artistic crew. But all the said aspects of this “Cinematic Masterpiece” have already been read and discussed in every Film Forum in the entire web world to the extreme.
So here instead of talking about the much discussed make up of Big B and his effortless portrayal of a child’s character suffering from Progeria, I would like to write about another innovation tried by R. Balki in the opening titles of the film, where Jaya Bachchan herself appears on the screen (at the start of the film) and reads out all the credits coming up, with her divine & motherly smile. The director R. Balki reportedly said in an interview, that he thought of this idea as he was really very keen on working with Jaya Bachchan and this gave him an opportunity to work with her right away, without waiting for any other project to start in the near future.
But for the records, the idea was not a “First” as it was earlier adopted by the veteran director Hrishikesh Mukherjee in his famous movie “Bawarchi” made in 1972, which had Rajesh Khanna in the lead and Jaya Bachchan playing an important role as the daughter of the house.
As seen in “Paa”, Hrishi Da’s “Bawarchi” also opens with a voice-over of Amitabh Bachchan, who reads out all the respective credits of the movie one by one in pure Hindi. But here the only difference is that the credits are not visibly written on the screen and the viewers only hear a voice reading them all.
However, the most amusing part of this revelation is that in 1972, “Bawarchi” was the movie in which Jaya Bachchan played a prominent role and Amitabh (who did not feature in it) gave his voice-over for the credits. And now in 2009, “Paa” becomes the movie where Amitabh plays a prominent role and Jaya Bachchan (who does not feature in it), gives her voice-over for its credits along with her gracious & warm presence.
I strongly believe that with this inspired insertion in their home production “Paa”, both Amitabh & Jaya gave their humble tribute to their favourite & one of the most respected names in Hindi Film Industry, Shri Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
