HAWAIZAADA: Get some air! [1.5/5]

As defined on the ‘know-it-all’ Wikipedia online page; coffee table books are an oversized art & literature piece, positioned best in the shelf to inspire conversation. Subject matter is predominantly non-fiction and pictorial. Nothing changes if you dare to compare the same with debutante writer-director Vibhu Puri’s highly ambitious HAWAIZAADA. Both can make you mesmerized with their picture-perfect, magnanimously shot visuals in its in-detailed presentation but that’s it. There is hardly any room for content there. So, keep flipping the pages till you find the levels of your enthusiasm fading down to minimum. And then, leave it for another. These days, they have plenty in stores for you.

Despite having great possibility of being a well-intentioned period drama-cum-thrilling biopic, HAWAIZAADA offers nothing but plain air sure more than what you buy in your favorite wafer pack at the shop around the corner. Before Wright Brothers could go beyond imagination and invent an airplane, there was an enthusiastic Indian named Shivkar Bapuji Talpade who deserved all the respects for being the real pioneer. A plot fascinating enough for a motion picture, no second thoughts on that! But then you have to see what Vibhu does with that further.

Take inspirations from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s extravagant Victorian era-inspired hugely unbelievable sets; make your leading character as dynamic, animated and charming as if he’s not from a historic background but out of a fairytale and then put plenty of gloss in everything that comes in your way. It has been a confirmed Midas touch for Bhansali’s fictional outings. Vibhu, one of his worthy successors tries the same with a biopic and fails miserably. You are left in constant doubts as to appreciate the efforts of such gigantic talents of the industry or to mourn the opportunity getting wasted on such large scale.

Rajesh Khanna says in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ANAND, “Yeh duniya ek ranmanch hai, jahaanpanaah…aur hum sab iski kathputliyaan” (The world is a big stage, my lord…and we all are nothing but the puppets). I have never seen a biopic so theatrical that you just want to remove the disclaimer and enjoy it as a fictional drama. This Bombay of 1895 never looked so decked up. Shastry [Played by Mithun Chakraborty] as a cranky scientist lives in a dumped ship on the shore and it is barely any lesser than a well-established museum.

On the performances, Ayushmann Khurrana charms with his trademark flirtatious looks and killing smile. I hoped to see the compliments like ‘Awww, how cute he is!’ getting up the next level with ‘Wow, how good he acts!’ but looks like I have to wait a little more. Pallavi Sharda of BESHARAM fame is better than her last. Mithun repeats himself but doesn’t fail at all. For the rests, it’s the child actor Naman Jain and Jameel Khan who show some kind of believability to their characters.

Having said that, HAWAIZAADA does have some of the most impressive efforts on the set-designing & writing front [dialogues & lyrics never fall short of expectations] but the completely off-track romance, bumpy screenplay, lack of much-needed realistic approach and the overtly dramatic Broadway like production-style make it a droning, dull and monotonous watch. [1.5/5]             

BESHARAM: It is not so bold & shameless but a shameful out-dated entertainer! [2/5]

In a scene where Ranbir Kapoor, playing a car-thief named Babli, tries to escape by tying up an ageing police inspector, played by his off-screen father Mr. Rishi Kapoor, with a bedsheet and refers him as ‘mota! dharti ka bojh!’ [Fat man! The useless burden on the earth!], you laugh, of course; but not at the situation, not at the forceful wit lines throw at you but for the very fact that they both share a father-son relationship in real life. The pun was intended and achieved! I wish if the same goes with the most of jokes in Abhinav Singh Kashyap’s second directorial venture BESHARAM. I seriously wish…

In a lifted paper-thin storyline that’s no indifferent from the bollywood hits of 60’s, 70’s and of 80’s to some extent, Babli [played by super-charged Ranbir Kapoor] is an orphan who masters in stealing posh cars. No prizes for guessing that he contributes most of his hard-earned money to the orphanage for the welfare of the kids and now wants to leave all this for his love of life Tara [newbie Pallavi Sharda in her full-fledged debut]. Meanwhile, the Law enforcers dressed as Chautala duo [absolutely adorable Rishi Kapoor & ravishingly charismatic Neetu Singh Kapoor] and the lawbreaker Hawala-king Bhim Singh Chandel [Jaaved Jaffrey in a delightful surprise package as a grim-faced villain] both are waiting for him to settle the final score. What waits for you in the store is anything but a breathless, mindless, action packed climax!

With his first the fearless ‘DABANGG’, Abhinav impressed all of us with a style of unseen fresh writing and a solid hand in well developed characterization but in this shameless ‘BESHARAM’, it’s only the writing that lets him down. You are never out of sight as what will come next. In swear to be bold and blatantly unashamed, all he could come up with a few dialogues here and there that talk about ‘fart’ & ‘shits’ in literal. In the screenplay, songs come back to back as if either you are watching a musical or a ‘Chitrahar’ on Doordarshan.

Film, if even for once, could be pronounced as watchable, it would be the performances. Ranbir Kapoor alone has his charm to run shows houseful. Though there is not much to surprise, he is confidently there to stand tall. Pallavi Sharda is good but I don’t see the promise to bring something fresh on screen with her typical looks. Amitosh Nagpal as Ranbir’s friend does create some cackling moments. Rishi Kapoor too has been exploring an impressive second innings in Bollywood with his notable selection of films but I could never stop my heart beating at a speed of a bullet train whenever I had my privilege to watch Ms. Neetu Singh Kapoor setting screen on fire with her spontaneity and marvelously aging beauty!

At the end, it is a film that will be under scrutiny because of the expectations people have from Abhinav Singh Kashyap’s being the Captain of the ship and the track-record he has set with ‘DABANGG’. Alas! We have to wait for another to judge his potential better, as of now BESHARAM is bold, shameless & funny in parts; but for the most, it is a formulaic forced entertainer that is filled- loaded & packed with all the masalas of Bollywood potboilers we have been watching from ages. And this is probably not the best time to serve ‘run of the mill’ stale meal. An average entertainer and a big disappointment! Watch it if you really have to! [2/5]