Hawaa Hawaai
- Director
- Amole Gupte
- Studio
- Amole Gupte Cinema
- Release Date
- 8 May 2014
- Running Time
- 120 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- India
- Budget
- ₹11.00 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹11.36 Cr
Review
There's a purity of heart in this film that refuses to look away from Mumbai's invisible children—those who glide between survival and dreams on makeshift wheels. Director Amit Masurkar captures something deeply human here: the way friendship becomes currency when money runs out, how a coach's belief can rewrite a child's sense of possibility. Arjun's story, built from scrap metal and fiercer determination, makes you believe in the transformative power of sport not as escape, but as dignity. The performances carry genuine weight—there's no melodrama in how these young actors embody exhaustion and hunger, and the chemistry between Arjun and Aniket feels earned rather than manufactured. What works brilliantly is the film's refusal to sentimentalize poverty; it simply shows it, alongside the stubborn, ordinary magic of four friends welding together a future.
Yet the film occasionally stumbles when trying to balance its intimate character work with broader social messaging. Some scenes feel stretched where subtlety would have landed harder, and the second half loses some of the rawness that makes the opening so compelling. The narrative momentum slackens before the final stretch, and you wish Masurkar had trusted his audience more—less explanation, more breathing room for the emotions to settle. Still, this is a filmmaker genuinely interested in the lives of people cinema typically ignores, and that commitment shows in every frame.
Rating: 7/10
Storyline
So there's this kid named Arjun whose family moves to Mumbai after his dad passes away, and he ends up working at a tea stall to help make ends meet. One night he notices some other kids arriving for skating lessons with this coach guy named Aniket, and he gets totally hooked on the idea of learning to skate. The problem is that proper skates cost way more money than he could ever afford, so his four buddies come together and actually build him a pair of skates out of scrap materials and junk they find lying around.
When Aniket spots Arjun practicing with his makeshift skates, he's seriously impressed by the kid's natural talent and decides to take him under his wing. Aniket is convinced that Arjun has real potential and starts training him seriously, eventually getting him ready to compete in a district-level skating competition. But right before the race, Arjun goes missing, and Aniket discovers he's been hospitalized with a serious illness called hepatitis.
Once Arjun recovers, Aniket starts to understand just how tough life is for this kid and his friends—they're struggling with hunger, exhaustion, and practically no time to rest while they're working and going through all these hardships. This really opens Aniket's eyes to how much these kids need proper support and education, so he becomes determined to help them out however he can. He decides Arjun should compete at an even bigger state-level championship, and the film takes you on that journey without revealing what happens next.
