Cast: Partho Gupte (Arjun Harishchandra Wagmare aka Raju), Saqib
Saleem (Lucky sir aka Aniket Bharhava), Makrand Deshpande (Harishchandra
Wagmare), Neha Joshi (Arjun’s mother), Anuj Sachdeva (Anirudh Bhargava), Ashfaque
Bismillah Khan (Gochi), Maaman Memon (Abdul), Thirupathi N Kushnapelli
(Murugan), Salman Chote Khan (Bhura), Pragya Yadav, Devraya Gole, Rekha Kamat,
Sanjay Dadich, Hardik Raheja, Srishti Sharma, Manav Hirey, Zufin, Shardha
Shripad Nabar, Saba Qureshi, Aaliya Qureshi, Solya Qureshi, Suman Arjun
Mahaskar, Mahesh Kumar
Genre: Sports
Direction: Amole Gupte
Production: Amole Gupte
Written by: Amole Gupte
Editor: Deepa Bhatia
Studio: Amole Gupte Cinema
Distribution: Fox Star Studios
Release Date: 9th May, 2014
Language: Hindi
Duration: 2 hours
Hawaa
Hawaai celebrates
the triumph of an ordinary Dharavi boy who dared to dream, pursued his dream
and became successful with his sheer determination, hard work, and persistence.
Though the plot is absolutely predictable, what makes it a delight to watch is
the simple yet sensitive and unexaggerated handling of the plot by Amole Gupte;
group of ‘Pandavas’- five boys and their camaraderie; mentor-protégé relationship; bonding between mother-son / two
brothers etc. This
movie has no dearth of optimism, positive energy, and undying achiever’s spirit.
Harishchandra Wagmare (Makrand
Deshpande), a cotton farmer, gives a perfect start to the movie with lighting
the diya and a great bhajan (explaining the Jeevan-saar i.e. meaning of life
and challenges associated with life) along with his son Arjun Harishchandra
Wagmare (Partho Gupte) on his side and a happy family in the background. These
initial frames itself explained that the young protagonist Arjun’s life may not
be easy.
Then the backdrop changes to Mumbai,
where Arjun is trying to seek a job at a tea-stall. His mother (Neha Joshy) reluctantly
allows him to work there. Destiny changed the course of his life that day, since
in front of the tea stall, he got to see lot of children welcoming Lucky Sir
aka Aniket Bharghava (Saqib Saleem, brother of actress Huma Qureshi), a skate
coach. Aniket is in a wheel chair recovering from an accident. He is passionate
about the sport and coaching lot of students and also preparing them for
District Championship. Arjun got fascinated with skating but found it
a distant dream since skates were too costly to be afforded by him. When his
group of other four friends (all children) – a mechanic Gochi (Ashfaque Bismillah Khan),
Weaver Abdul (Maaman Memon), Rag Picker
Murugan (Thirupathi N Kushnapelli) and a Gajra (Mogra) seller Bhura (Salman
Chote Khan) learn about Arjun’s dream, what they do next is actually to be
seen. It is hilarious, when all five take leave for an hour from their
respective employers to buy a skate with just Rs. 30/- since Gochi
misunderstood 30K as just Rs. 30/-. Amole has spectacularly depicted the
synergy of these boys where each one of them contributed to tailor made a
skate- Hawaa Hawaai for Arjun (let me not reveal, how each one of them
contributed).
But the path for Arjun
was not easy. He turned out to be an Eklavya who learnt by watching Aniket’s
coaching along with serving tea to the customers and practicing late night when
everybody left. Still, Arjun was aware that he was far away from being a great
skater.
How Arjun’s friends plan
to get his talent showcased in front of the ‘Dronacharya’ – Aniket is another
hilarious scene. How Aniket takes an extra mile to coach his new student ? How
does Arjun manage with his full day (rather extended hours too) tea-stall job
followed by skating practice? Can Aniket
groom Arjun to be a Champion? What happens to the District Championship? We
know, Arjun will emerge as a winner at the end, but how his journey was toward
the winning destination? Please watch the movie and enjoy the journey of Arjun.
What an effortless
performance from Partho as Arjun! He seems to breath Arjun’s character, his
pain, inner turmoil, passion to fulfill the dream… Rest of the cast Saqib as a
skating coach, Neha as Arjun’s mother, Anuj as Aniket’s brother Anirudh,
of-course Makrand Deshpande’s brief but lingering performance as Arjun’s father
and all the kids are also very good.
Writer-Director Amole Gupte has effortlessly shown the suffering
of the downtrodden and their struggles to live their lives in a very believable
manner. The underlying pathos is shown in a subtle manner. He has touched upon
the plight of the farmers. The heart-rending song ‘sapno ko ginte ginte’
captures varied glimpses of children engaged in different activities of life.
On one side, a few children are going to school, having parental bliss,
enjoying the home made food, and on another side, a few other children are
trying to earn their living by rag-picking, selling mogras, weaving, working in
the garage / tea-stall, their daily battle for survival etc. These contrasting
lifestyle’s visuals are run side by side. The picturization of the song
displays the divide between the privileged and the underprivileged / deprived
lot of the children in the contemporary society. It is great to see how the
kids find a way out even amidst darkness, dealing with the life’s struggles
with a great sense of humour.
The moment where Aniket
realizes that what he learnt from the positive spirits of these Pandavas has
changed his life forever is very touching.
Dialogues by Gochi:
“Humne nahi chuna ye jindagi, jahan laakar patka vahin se chal pade saab”,
“agar school gaye to kya kitaab khayenge saab” moved me to tears.
Amole has
definitely been able to raise a few questions that, aren’t we as a society responsible to
ensure the following :
- Make basic education every child’s right
- Wiping out child labour from the society
- Identifying and nurturing the talents of every children
Hawaa Hawaai, a great delight to watch, would definitely reignite the passion in us to pursue our dreams.
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