Film Review - Hawaizaada

Flight of Fancy

Film: Hawaizaada

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Pallavi Sharda, Mithun Chakraborty

Directed by: Vibhu Puri

Duration: 2 hrs 37 mins

Rating: * 1 / 2

Hawaizaada supposedly based on the exploits of an Indian pioneer called Shivkar Talpade, is a long, exhausting and excruciating account that leaves you running for cover by the end. This flight of fancy never takes because the screenplay is all over the place. It attempts to integrate romance, adventure, science (pseudo), singing, dancing and all the ingredients of a typical Bollyood film.

Filmmakers have to make up their mind – either you make a biopic by sticking to the facts or let your imagination let loose but don’t give a heady concoction of facts and fiction, mostly the latter. Hawaizaada is more Pataal Bhairavi than anything else.

There isn’t much evidence to prove what Shivkar Bapuji Talpade did at the turn of the 19^th century. He is credited with constructing the first unmanned plane in 1895. Fair enough, this premise could make for an interesting narrative. But instead what we get is Talpade (Khurrana) as a young man who falls in love with a courtesan (Pallavi Sharda) and pursues her with considerable vigor.

Good old Mithun plays an oddball scientist, reminding you of Christopher Lloyd in Back To The Future. He has almost cracked the formula of how to make a plane fly. This makes the Brits very suspicious and angry. As the audience, you couldn’t care less about any of them by now.

With the odd unconvincing reference to the plane not to mention the non-existent science, it follows the romance track and there is a song for almost every occasion dampening the already slow pace further.

While the visuals are impressive and considerable money seems to have been spent on the sets, it all comes to a naught. The least you expect is a gripping climax but it fails on that count as well with all the jingoism that it displays.

Published in The Navhind Times on 1st February 2015

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Film Review - Bewakoofiyaan

Courting Trouble
 
Film: Bewakoofiyaan
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor
Directed by: Nupur Asthana
Duration: 1 hr 55 mins
Rating: * *
 

Bewakoofiyaan directed by Nupur Asthana (of Mujse Fraandship Karoge fame) is a film that doesn’t sizzle and doesn’t completely fizzle either. It is harmless but certainly insipid and whatever happens in it, you can see it coming from furlongs.  The otherwise reliable Habib Faisal has written a script which is pretty much on auto pilot mode without any surprising deviations.
 

Mohit (Ayushmann) is a marketing executive with an airline company who has everything going for him. A cushy job, car and a girlfriend Mayera (Sonam Kapoor) whom he wants to marry. She is also a working woman who incidentally earns more than him. Her father V.K Saigal (Rishi Kapoor) is a retired IAS officer and he disapproves of the young man, he even tests him with a game of squash. 
 

Now our marketing bloke loses job thanks to the recession and soon faces a depleting bank balance. V.K meanwhile keeps a close eye on the prospective son-in-law who is forced to take a loan from his girlfriend. What could have been a nice drama ends up being all over the place. There is a bit of comic element, the expected breakup, bonding between the two men and finally a reunion of the boy and girl where they live happily ever after.
 

A fair bit of the film is quite convoluted and instead of delving deeper on the relationship in the time of crisis, instead it just skims the surface and unnecessarily focuses on the males. In one scene Mohit even climbs through the window to teach to his father in law about computers.  After the initial love hate relationship, they become friends before you can say Yo !
 

The character of the father who comes off more as a caricature, is the weakest link. Thankfully, he is played by Rishi Kapoor who always adds value, no matter how or good or irrational the role is.
 

The lead pair of Sonam Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana is sincere and likable and share a sparkling chemistry. You wish they had a better screenplay to show their skills.      


Published in The Navhind Timess on 16th March 2014
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