While the film had the potential of being moving and patriotic, the executive wasn't as believable as director Vibhu Puri's imagination and conviction. This painfully long film is nothing to write home about -- be it performances or the unnecessary songs
Hawaizaada
U; Drama
Director: Vibhu Puri
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Pallavi Sharda, Mithun Chakraborty
Stars: 
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Set in 1895, the film speaks about a scientist Shivkar Bapuji Talpade who apparently constructed the world’s first unmanned plane, eight years before the Wright Brothers invented the aeroplane. Talpade is believed to have managed to make the plane which actually flew with the dint of his belief and financial help from a few well wishers, and despite the attempts by British officers to nix his plans. Even though records say otherwise, one wants to believe in Vibhu Puri’s fairytale-like story of an Indian being the first to envision and fashion a ‘machine’ that we can fly. With such a background, this had the potential of being a moving, patriotic film.
But only if the executive was as believable as Puri’s imagination and conviction. Puri recreates, or rather tries hard to create, the Bombay of the 18th century and what we get is a mishmash of false grand sets, some real and others shamefully obvious computer generated. While Puri was too busy concentrating on grandeur, he obviously forgot to keep an eye on other little details which screamed out that they were 2014s and not 1850s.
Nothing is more disappointing than a director overlooking details while creating an entirely different era for you. Ladies with nail paint, men with branded wristwatches and, hold it, lyrics that blatantly brandied recent concepts like cutting chai and bun maska belie more than the director’s carelessness. I half expected someone surfing the internet in the background while the rest of the team went about pretending as if they belonged to the 18th century.
There is nothing to write home about the acting department, except for Mithun Chakraborthy (playing Talpade’s mentor Shastri) who is endearing even though he overdoes it at times. Ayushmann Khurrana is trying too hard to please and Pallavi Sharda (playing Talpade’s girlfriend) seems to have not tried at all. Forget getting into the skin of the character, she doesn’t even get into clothes befitting that era. With that hairstyle and those fancy outfits, she could easily pass off as an item girl in a David Dhawan film.
To top it all, this painfully long film is peppered with unnecessary songs after every two minutes, and in the process, also heartbreakingly massacres Ghalib’s immortal ghazal, ‘Dil-e-nadaan tujhe hua kya hai’.
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