Movie Review: Hawaa Hawaai is about triumph over all odds
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Amole Gupte’s Hawaa Hawaai has nothing to do with the famous song picturised on Sridevi in Mr India. In fact, in Mr India, the hero becomes invisible in front of the baddies and here it’s about a chaiwala boy, who fulfills his dream against the invisible odds.
The timing of the movie’s release has also become critical. It was released at such a time when another, one time chaiwala, had taken the office of PM in India. There, it is Mr Narendra Modi, and here, it’s about Arjun Harishchandra Waghmare. Though, they are different in many ways, yet there is similarity beyond being chaiwala boys once. Both have tried to make their dreams come true against various visible and invisible odds.
The movie should have fallen in the category of motivating, inspirational and feel good movies but during the course of watching and even after it, you would feel that it’s much more than that.
Amole Gupte, who has Taare Zameen Par and Stanley Ka Dabba to his credit, this time, has come up with a different treatment about the social issues that he tries to address in his movie. He does have a gift of making his child actors act naturally. In this movie too, Arjun Waghmare (Parthu Gupte, who happens to be the son of Amole Gupte), and his friends, make you laugh, smile, feel sad, happy and all in their own effortless way. Their chemistry is something to watch out for, in this movie.
Arjun is a fatherless, small chaiwala, who has a dream to skate. He is being helped in his cause by Aniket Bhargava (Saqib Salim), who is a failed skater himself; and his friends, Gochi (Ashfaque Khan), Bhura (Salman Khan), Morogun (Thirupathi Kushnapelli) and Abdul (Maaman Menon). The scene in which all four make up stories to go and buy the skates for Arjun is worth watching and is testament of the kids’ acting prowess and director’s grip.
The only thing that will bother you throughout the course of the movie is the overflow of melodrama. Understandably, every character has his own story to tell and has his own emotional fights to fight, but in almost all the scenes, this overflow of melodramatic effects leaves you wondering if you’re watching a movie or the usual soap that is aired on television.
Gupte has tried to touch upon a number of issues in the movie. Besides being about the underprivileged children and their issues, he touches the issues of making choices. Perhaps, the film could have been better had it not touched so many issues at the same time.
Gupte’s way of handling relationships between various characters is also something worth noticing. While the relationship between the coach and the boy may apparently seem to be the main building block of the story, it’s the other relationships that grab your attention as well. The relationship of the boy with his parents, the relationship of his friends with the coach, and the one between all the friends are equally important, if not more.
Musical score by Amole Gupte and Hitesh Sonik is good and syncs well with scenes and the undertones of various human emotions. Cinematography by Amole Gupte and Vikas Sivaraman is good but not exceptional. Scenes with the elements of thrill, excitement and the uplift, associated with the sports of skating in particular, are captured really well. But the night scenes, which are almost too many in the second half, could have been better. Editing of Deepa Bhatia has been sleek and has saved the film from its many blemishes.
Though, some would say that its not the best of Gupte’s movies, it is certainly one of those that cannot be overlooked. Definitely worth watching!
Staring: Partho Gupte, Saqib Salim, Makarand Deshpashde, Devrya Gole, Neha Joshi, Ashfaque Bismillah Khan, Salman Chotey Khan, Maaman Menon & Thirupathi Kushnapelli.
Produced by Fox Star Studios, this film is written and directed by Amole Gupte, Music by Amole Gupte and Hitesh Sonik; Edited by Deepa Bhatia; Cinematography by Amole Gupte and Vikas Sivaraman.