Hawaizaada

Inspirational for Indians.. should be watched by young... made in a different style of fantasy and fiction.. but based on true story about the first person who made a flight machine and he happened to Indian.

The movie is stuck between projecting an actual historical fact and a musical. Unnecessary prolongation of the strained love story in a movie that's supposed to talk about the achievements of an Indian that supposedly were suppressed.

The movie could have had a straight forward screenplay instead of beating around the bush.

Can't believe Ayushmann signed up for this movie.

If one wants to make a film in any science based invention than he has to do lots of research work and if he won't be able to find much stuff to convert it in film but still wants to make others aware about this fact then there are lots of other mediums, like short film, documentary, handbills, news article except film. Lack of research work is major drawback of this film. First they tried to compensate it with a love track which is also very boring. Love track worsens it further and applies break on already slow movie. There is nothing in the name of story, screenplay, just an information. Dialogues are impressive. What was the inspiration or idea behind making a plane is not there except that an Indian wanted to make it. Execution and obstacles both looks very unreal and childish. Somehow after watching this movie you start doubting that is it fact or fiction as they have presented it in film. Person is genius to think about making a Airplane but not even think a bit about how to control it or land it, trying comes after. Safety measures would have worked or not its another thing but not even thinking about it is not digestible. Premise is Maharashtra but you cant find it neither in language nor in set designs, only speaking few Marathi words do not justify it. Costumes are so bad that the jail dress looks like as night suit. Background score gives feeling that it is not proud of India but dedicated to a particular religion but suddenly took a U turn and started giving feeling of another religion then a tasteless combination of both. Cinematography is good but it is obsessed with pigeon, candle and focus shifting. Performance wise Ayushmann Khurana looks as if he is smiling in sad scenes. Even fantastic actor Mithun Da looks very average, Director has to be blamed for this. Nothing to say about others. Child actor Naman Jain as lead male actor nephew is very good. Music is good as an independent album but does not fit in the film.

About flying and freedom (and, of course, love), the Bollywood movie "Hawaizaada," directed by Vibhu Virender Puri, spins legend into more legend. The year is 1895, and the setting is Bombay. The story concerns a quest by two Indians to build an airplane and to show the British rulers of India - "A monkey can't make a machine!" one says - what their subjects can do. Mr. Puri's film is so laden with symbols - Christian imagery is everywhere - and resonances (Hindu myths and scriptures) that it's sometimes hard to read. But an Indian nationalist message comes through clearly, and it's an inclusive one. When Shivy and his mentor, Subbaraya Shastry (Mithun Chakraborty), need money to continue their experiments in flying, which are based on Vedic numbers and principles, Shivy's old pals contribute money they'd been saving to go on hajj. Shivar Bapuji Talpade, who developed the first successful flying machine in 1895, 8 years before the wright brothers. Yes, its proved in national science congress that a device similar to modern planes successfully flew at the height of 1500 feet in the air and successfully landed.

The premise of Hawaizaada had potential to be a really interesting account of Shivkar Bapuji Talpade who is believed to have flown an airplane even before the Wright brothers. While the motives of debut-director Vibhu Puri are in place but not enough importance is given either to writing a good screenplay or to dwell upon actual facts and science. What we get is dozens of needless songs stuffed in with a poor romance story and juvenile attempts at humor. I don't know how a talented lad like Ayushmann Khurrana ended up in this travesty.

Ayushmann plays Shivkar Talpade who is not very good studies and hence has been failing in the same class for years now. He is very intelligent though when it comes to building things and practical knowledge. But before we can see him go on building an aircraft we have to sit through an atrocious hour of romance with his lady-love Sitara (Pallavi Sharda) and a couple of boring songs. Both of them belong to different classes which angers Shiv's father removing him from his house and Sitara also leaves him believing it is not suitable for them to marry. After all that clichéd melodrama finally Shiv meets an old science-enthusiast Shastri (Mithun Chakraborty) who is trying to build the first ever flying vehicle with help of verses from ancient Vedas. He sees the spark in Shiv when Shiv makes a model he Shastri built take-off with his knowledge. They both start working together and Shiv leans a lot about Vedas from Shastri. Then our hero's lady love is back in the story to stuff in more melodrama and songs. I really don't understand why Bollywood needs to have romance and dozens of songs in every film no matter of the subject or genre. The film runs for a dragging length of 2 and half hours and by the time we see Shiv fly away I was waiting badly for the credits to start rolling to put an end to the boredom.

The positives that here are the glamorous sets filled with glitter and colors. But they do seem a lot artsy to give the historic feel required. The British people shown are ridiculous and the independence propaganda is also thrown in making the screenplay way too out of place. Not much heed is given in the script to actual science behind the airplane models rather the characters speak one- dimensional dialogues consisting of nothing more than 'Your plane will fly, keep your hopes alive'. Ayushmann tries his best but poor dialogues overshadow his commitment. Mithun as the typical mentor adds nothing new and Pallavi's career flight is yet to take off with back-to-back disasters Besharam and this one. Only silver lining I could spot is the child actor Naman Jain portraying Shivkar's nephew. Lot of work was needed in the editing department, the script could have been stretched up to two hours maximum. Hawaizaada pursues for the flight for too long that making the actual flight tasteless. It has its heart at the right place but unfortunately that's the only thing going its way. Utterly disappointing.

RATING: [1/5]