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.

Vibhu Puri's 'Hawaizaada' is a highly ambitious, well-made film, but its uneven overall. A look at the life of scientist Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, this period piece is visually appealing, but too many songs & a stretched romantic-track, hit the film hard.

'Hawaizaada' is Based on the life on an Indian scientist Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, who is credited to have constructed India's first unmanned plane is the tale of the hardships that he went through on the journey to discover.

'Hawaizaada' needed to be more about Talpade & his Mentor's genius, rather than being a romantic-story about Talpade & his lady-love. Being a biopic, you except the film to be a detailed take on Talpade's journey about the scientist that he was, not who he romanced. Also, there are too many songs in the film. In fact, the first-hour has a song popping up every 10-minutes.

Vibhu Puri's Screenplay has moments of power, when the film actually talks about Talpade's ambition, but is mostly side-lined by its stilted romantic-track. Less of romance & more of drama would've made 'Hawaizaada' a biopic to reckon with. But sadly, that doesn't happen here!

Vibhu Puri's Direction, however, is stunning. In terms of visuals, 'Hawaizaada' is a beauty. Each & Every Frame has been captured beautifully, there is not a single dull frame in this biopic. The Cinematography is top-class & The Art Design is incredibly accurate. Editing is not sharp at all. The film is lazily paced & a bit too long. The Songs are melodious, but appear forced in the film.

Performance-Wise: Ayushmann Khurrana as Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, delivers a terrific performance. He rises above the faulty script & manages to keep the proceedings alive to a large extend, thanks to his impressive portrayal of the late legend in science. Mithun Chakraborty dominates every scene he appears in. As Ayushmann's eccentric mentor, he's exceptional. Pallavi Sharda as Ayushmann's lady love, looks gorgeous, but is saddled with the film's weakest track, & hence, she doesn't leave a mark.

On the whole, 'Hawaizaada' is made with passion, no doubt, but a stronger script was the need of the day!

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.

Rating

5/10

Anachronistic film based on air travel pioneer disappoints. Despite interesting plot the film is heavy going and listless. Kkhurana tries hard but doesn't leave much of an impact. Sets are interesting. The payoff is a long time coming.

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]