Planet Bollywood
Movie Review of ´HAWAIZAADA´
- Bhavikk Sangghvi           Let us know what you think about this story

First things first. This is not a pic; but an ‘epic’.

Painting 19th century on-screen particularly when it’s related to the detailing of the man who was questioned over making the first plane in that era, could never have been an easy task. But debutant director Vibhu Virender Puri impresses with his first film.

"Hawaizaada" takes off well and safe-lands straight in to your heart with its overweening ambitions and miraculously manages to stay airborne as it chronicles the life a man who wanted to fly.

Debutant director Vibhu Puri's very accomplished film, a tribute to the scientist who apparently manned the first aircraft that civilizations has ever flown, is a stunning feast of visual splendour, compounded with a script that's tightly and judiciously written to accentuate the audacity and eccentricity of people who can float in the future.

It can be said with great pride that Vibhu Puri's debut is homage to the art and visual aesthetics of Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Every frame is reminiscent of several Bhansali creations for the rich bold use of flamboyant colours to highlight the heightened opera-styled emotions.

"Hawaizaada" attempts an almost-impossible marriage of a visual splendour with emotional surrender. The characters, be it the whimsical aimless Shivkar Talpade or his kooky mentor Shastry, or the Britishers who scowl at any attempt by Shastry and Talpade to create inventional history.

The year is 1895. The possibilities of recreating that era in present times seem far-fetched and unlikely. Thanks to Puri's art directors (Subrata Chakraborty, Amit Ray), music composers (Vishal Bhardwaj pitches in with a zestful lavni and most specially his incredibly gifted camera-person Savita Singh (who happens to be Puri's wife), the director has constructed a world as unthinkable on paper as the theory of flying a plane must have seemed to Talpade's contemporaries.

"Hawaizaada" is a film with tempestuous ambitions. Co-writers Vibhu Puri and Saurabh R Bhave use Talpade's dream of flying as a metaphor for anyone from any era who has dreamt of breaking free. The pronounced metaphor is extended into Talpade's family of repressed character, like a growling father (Jayant Kripalani), tightlipped mother (Natasha Sinha), smirking brother (Mehul Kajaria), dominated bhabhi (Priyanka Sethia).

Encircling this wide arc of wannabe fliers who are piloted into the epic plot by Talpade's navigational dreams couldn't be an easy task. Vibhu Puri manages the seemingly impossible manoeuvring skilfully joyously and playfully through lives in an era when oppression was a pre-condition.

Soaring on a dream, "Hawaizaada" transports us into an enchanting world of a dream-reality where anything can happen. Fueling the impossible dream is the central performance by Ayushmann Khurrana who mans the film on his able shoulders. He breathes animated life into Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, the audacious 19th century scientist who dared to fly.

Mithun Chakraborty as Talpade's mentor (a high-flyer already) is goofy; eccentric and endearing. This is the actor's most effective performance in years. As for Pallavi Sharda, though admittedly that well-toned gym-produced physique doesn't jell with the film's periodicity, she is a revelation.

Going back in time is never an easy task in cinema. Many have failed to court periodicity convincingly. "Hawaizaada" gets away with its flight into the mind of the man who dared to fly. This miniature masterpiece leaves us exhilarated and exultant. Thank God for the dreamers, past and present.

Don’t’ miss this flight!

Rating: * * * * (4/5)


Bhavikk Sangghvi is a renowned astro-numerologist.
He can be reached at: www.bhavikksangghvi.com

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