About flying and freedom (and, of course, love), the Bollywood movie "Hawaizaada," directed by Vibhu Virender Puri, spins legend into more legend. The year is 1895, and the setting is Bombay. The story concerns a quest by two Indians to build an airplane and to show the British rulers of India - "A monkey can't make a machine!" one says - what their subjects can do.
Mr. Puri's film is so laden with symbols - Christian imagery is everywhere - and resonances (Hindu myths and scriptures) that it's sometimes hard to read. But an Indian nationalist message comes through clearly, and it's an inclusive one. When Shivy and his mentor, Subbaraya Shastry (Mithun Chakraborty), need money to continue their experiments in flying, which are based on Vedic numbers and principles, Shivy's old pals contribute money they'd been saving to go on hajj.
Shivar Bapuji Talpade, who developed the first successful flying machine in 1895, 8 years before the wright brothers. Yes, its proved in national science congress that a device similar to modern planes successfully flew at the height of 1500 feet in the air and successfully landed.
Review of Hawaizaada
