Hawaizaada is a film based on the life of Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, Mumbai inventor of 19th century. It was great to understand that he was supposed to have constructed and flown an airplane in 1895. Talpade’s airplane was named Marutsakha (wind-friend). It is said that Wright brothers came up with their first aircraft in 1903 in North Carolina, eight years after Shivkar achieved this feat. Kesari newspaper of Pune had covered this event where a curious audience headed by the famous Indian Judge/ Nationalist / Mahadeva Givin-da Ranade and HH Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Talpade had the good fortune to see Marutsakha take off, fly to a height of 1500 feet and then fall down to earth.
Ayushman as Shivi has definitely given a great performance. The movie projects him as a failure in academics (not sure, whether this is the creative liberty taken by the film maker or the truth), but brilliant otherwise. He is being ridiculed by his father and brother for his poor academic performance. Mithun Chakraborthy, Vedic Scholar Shastry recognizes the brilliance in Shivi and involves him in project of making the Vimana. Shivi’s nephew Narayan (Naman Jain) also joins them in this project. They always faced major threat from British Government.
Ayushman’s love interest Sitara is played by Pallavi Sharda. This love story in the background did slow down the pace and deviated from the core of the movie a bit.
Though lot of fictional elements have been added to the script, it is amazing to see how Shastry decoded Vedas for his research. He used to predict even the favourable time when air would have supported the airplane to be flown.
The story revolves around the central character Shivi and how he takes forward Shastry’s research further, and how he utilized the ancient knowledge of the Vedas, Sanskrit texts, to fly an aircraft, eight years before his foreign counterparts.
Mithun is very good. But the show-stealer is Naman Jain who played Narayan. He effortlessly plays his shots.
The movie does project the financial challenges faced by Shivi. If that could not have been the case, probably India would have had Shivkar Bapuji Talpade completing his research and come up with the successful aircraft.