If one has a serious claim to make in front of the entire world that it was an Indian scientist actually responsible for the first ever flight in the air with a plane (years before the Wright Brothers), then what path the director is expected to follow?
Obviously he has to make it as believable as possible with all logical reasoning, historical references, evident proofs and a powerful screenplay/execution that convinces the viewers to believe in every proceeding on the screen arousing a proud collective patriotic feeling in the end among his audiences.
But sadly that is not the vision followed in HAWAIZAADA directed by Vibhu Virender Puri (his debut in feature films), who amateurishly walks on an entirely unexpected, silly and illogical path to portray his important point and then completely falls flat unable to convince the viewers from any angle of his unfortunately. In other words, instead of presenting a logical take, Vibhu comes up with an entirely fantasy version of the claim, with a dream like execution having a clear, visible, heavy hangover Sanjay Leela Bhansali. And as I believe a Bhansali influence is surely capable of ruining more films than making them to be honest.
Commencing on a confusing note in its first scene itself, HAWAIZAADA keeps stressing more on colourful frames, heavy costumes, unrequired props, mindless romance and mediocre songs with a questionable comic touch that turns out to be weird throughout till the end. The script carelessly moves into various unclear directions, coming back to the main topic at intervals that eventually leads to a loss on interest and one starts questioning that what are they upto with such a messed up narration simply heading nowhere. The unnecessary stuffed melodrama, comedy and songs hardly give you anything to praise in its boringly long duration and that further forces you think that how could this even excite the makers reading it on the paper too.
Interestingly the biggest culprit of the screenplay/film remains its soulless romance and soundtrack that hampers its overall impact pretty badly and the film pathetically drags both in its first and second half featuring all unimpressive characters and their interactions. Its cinematographer, choreographer, editor and background score composer actually follow the vision of their director perfectly who probably wished to make a musical-fantasy-costume-drama instead of a realistic, believable historical film making a big claim in front of the entire world. The film's average soundtrack is hugely worked upon with innovative arrangements and variety but doesn't have that required melody to pull you in. For instance there is a traditional folk kind of song conceived with all western instruments and Ayushmann himself composes a Ghalib ghazal "Dil-e-Naadan"that has huge similarities with the one sung by Somesh Mathur in his album on Ghalib released many years back.
In the performance section, we have many honest efforts being made here assuming its probably a path breaking film about an astonishing fact never talked about before. Ayushmann Khurrana puts in the best with his utmost sincerity and so does Mithun Chakraborty as the main scientist, but they both get hugely betrayed by the poor writing and confused direction. Pallavi Sharda does nothing great to draw your attention and the same can be said about the rest of the cast too ranging from average to bad. Still among these uninspiring acts, a child artist Naman Jain does deliver an enjoyable natural performance in his few scenes.
Summing up, HAWAIZAADA remains a big opportunity wasted both in terms of cinema and as a document that could have been a solid support to the fact that an airplane was first invented in India before the Wright Brothers (and I was personally looking for the same in the film). It neither presents that amazing chapter of history with some logical justifications nor is able to convince the viewer through its messy execution wandering in various directions. In fact it seems that both the writers and their director were more interested in showing the romance, songs and drama instead of the invention being tried by the two men. As a result it comes out to be a childish fantasy take on the subject ruining a solid premise and after watching it I really doubt anyone would readily believe in the presented fact that it was an Indian scientist who did that significant invention first before the westerners.
In real terms, that is the damage this film has probably done to the debatable truth
.unfortunately.
(NOTE : For record, the film is based on the life of scientist Shivkar Bapuji Talpade (of Maharashtra) who is credited for inventing the first air plane years before the Wright Brothers.)
