About a horse & twin debuts

Even though ‘Azaad’ marks the debut of two industry kids — Aaman Devgan (Ajay Devgn’s nephew) and Rasha Thadani (Raveena Tandon’s daughter), the film is actually about a horse. Not just that it’s titled after it, but the majestic stallion also gets a song and romantic track and an arc. Fond of drinking, yes we are still talking about the horse, he gives up the bad habit on the insistence of his lady love, sorry ‘mare’ love — Bijli!

This two hour and 27 minutes Abhishek Kapoor (‘Rock On!’and ‘Kai Po Che’ fame) directorial follows the story of Govind, a stable boy who wants to own a horse. But he is living in the pre-Independence era where zamindars rule in cahoots with the British. His village mukhiya Rai Bahadur (Piyush Mishra), with eyes set to marry off daughter Janki (Rasha Thadani) to the British chief’s son James (Andrew Crouch), is unleashing tyranny on the villagers, not only taking ‘lagaan’ but also forcing them to go as slaves to South Africa. Not bothered much about the socio-political conditions prevailing at home, Govind falls in love with not Janki (he hates her, calling her ‘chudail’) but baghi Vikram Thakur’s (Ajay Devgn) horse Azaad. The rest you can fill in the blanks, whose ‘hate’ turns to ‘love’, who lives or dies!

With director Abhishek Kapoor, there comes an expectation — to see something heart-touching. He does his job as the captain of this ship well. Where it lacks is the storyline. He teams up with Ritesh Shah and Suresh Nair in the writing department to create another ‘Sholay’ (we have a Biru here, but not a brave one) or ‘Lagaan’ (there is a bet with the rulers) probably, but the film neither touches the heart, nor the patriotic streak.

A horse can well lead the film, we have loved and been awed by ‘Seabiscuit’. But the smelly, flirty, mournful and tantrum-throwing Azaad doesn’t command the due respect! Now, the others — Ajay Devgn as the rebel sardar is sincere in his act. The seasoned actor offers no novelty but gently paves the way for the hero to be.

Aaman Devgan makes a decent debut; the boy can dance and act reasonably. The stable boy turns ‘unstable’ rather soon and in a meaty role that he gets showcases agility and amiability. One thing for sure, whether nepo kids or not, the youngsters today train hard to get into the show business.

Rasha Thadani makes a confident debut; she is lovely on screen and acts fairly well, winning the cinegoers with item number ‘Uyi Amma’. Though Piyush Mishra as Rai Bahadur doesn’t get much to do, Mohit Malik as his tyrant son Tej Bahadur makes for a ruthless, stylish villain. Diana Penty in the short role looks alluring.

Music includes a romantic track ‘Ajeeb-O-Gareeb’, title track ‘Azaad Hai Tu’, Holi number ‘Birangay’ and item number ‘Uyi Amma’, but nothing is going to stick around for long even though the last one is hummable. The production value is substantial; cinematographer Satyajit Pande (Setu), with ‘Dangal’, ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Kahaani’ to his credit, showcases the Indian landscape beautifully with some excellent night shots in the film.

If one can overlook some average CGI and fault lines in the screenplay (the zamindars here have rather rebellious women at home who couldn’t care less about the family’s reputation), it may qualify for a one-time watch; that is, if you are interested in a dacoit story!