Is it a romance? Is it a patriotic tale? Is it a musical? Is it a biopic? Hawaizaada tries to be all these and becomes none of the above. This Ayushmann Khurrana starrer has generous dollops of sincerity that is lost in translation. Sad, indeed. This could have been a classic and yet it falls way too short, with a meandering screenplay and an empty emotional core.
For a film that documents the life of Shivkar Talpade, said to have made the world’s first aircraft years before the Wright Brothers, Hawaizaada is more theatrical than biographic.
With picture-perfect frames by Savita Singh, the film’s mood is very Bhansali-ish. It even reminds you of the veteran director’s Saawariya, if only for its tonality. But debutant director Vibhu Puri fails in giving any emotional depth to the characters or the proceedings.
Most people are reduced to caricatures, and their loud, dramatic acting doesn’t help either. Even worse is the clutter in most frames. To give a sense of originality, Puri packs in too much into every scene that the antics of the extra artists become a terrible distraction.
Case in point is where Shivkar (Ayushmann) bonds with his mentor Pandit Subbaraya Shastry (Mithun Chakraborty) in a crowded street. In the backdrop is a policeman trying to nab someone, reducing the overall impact of a seminal moment in the film into a crowded skit.
That is not to nitpick but to highlight how perhaps the debutant director’s over-the-top earnestness contributes to taking the real punch out of the film.
More disturbing, however, is the rather hollow premise and desperate efforts to pander to all factions of the Indian society including the bigots and the scientists.
According to the film, Shastry has a book that takes ideas from the Indian epics on making the first flying machine. The British, who have colonised the country, want that book at any cost and prevent Indians from making the plane simply because they want to paint the picture of India as the land of sadhus and snake charmers.
Lending impetus to the politically charged discussion that had polarised the country’s scientific community recently, Hawaizaada seems to vouch by the epics, and resorts to loud religious chants as background score when the first machine takes off.
And then, almost like an afterthought, the director brings in the minority dimension and has Shivkar’s friend setting aside the money he had earmarked for the Hajj pilgrimage to build the plane. Even more suddenly, Shivkar is elevated into a national hero and his ‘scientific quest’ becomes akin to the freedom struggle.
Somewhere, along the line, it becomes obvious that Vibhu Puri’s script was hacked by studio honchos and ‘audience experts’ who looked for a commercial kill.
The sad victim is the film which heads on direction-less with Shivkar repeating ‘it won’t fly’ ad nauseam, making wish you had given the money for the movie ticket to the poor guy. Oh yes, in between it all is Shivkar’s love for a theatre artist (Pallavi Sharda). Songs fly out from all directions; any emotion calls for one killing the tempo.
Thus, despite some methodical and theatre-perfect act by Ayushmann, Pallavi and Mithun, Hawaizaada becomes painfully tedious, slightly making up for the lost excitement only towards its predictable climax. We leave the theatre with no new insights about Shivkar or as ignorant about him as before.
Hawaizaada is this year’s first lost opportunity; let us hope for less wasted chances in Bollywood in the coming weeks.
Hawaizaada
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Pallavi Sharda and Mithun Chakraborty
Directed by: Vibhu Puri
Rating: 2/5
