Azaad Movie Cast/ Actors: Ajay Devgn as Vikram Singh, Diana Penty as Kesar, Aman Devgan as Govind, Rasha Thadani as Janaki, Piyush Mishra as Raj Bahadur, Mohit Malik as Tej Bahadur, Jiya Amin as Daani, Akshay Anand Kohli as Biru, Dylan Jones as Lord Cummings, Andrew Crouch as James Cummings, Rakesh Sharma as Jamal.
Azaad Movie Director: Abhishek Kapoor
Azaad Movie Release Date: January 17, 2025
Azaad Movie Available On: Theatrical Release and (Likely to be released on Netflix OTT platform)
Azaad Movie Released/ Available In Languages: Hindi
Azaad Movie Runtime: 147 Minutes
Azaad Movie Critic Review:
At the end of nearly two-and-a-half hours, you want to ask director Abhishek Kapoor and his writing team that includes Ritesh Shah and Suresh Nair, just one question. What was the story you ventured to tell?
Was it about a magnificent, Chetak-like horse that could give its life to his master? If yes, then the most-loved animal film remains Rajesh Khanna and Chinnappa Devar’s Haathi Mere Saathi (1971) where entire families had a jumbo-size crush on Ramu, the hero’s pet elephant. But Abhishek and company treat Azaad like a backdrop, never letting the viewer warm up to the animal who is shown throwing off, neighing noisily and kicking the hero, most of the time. Oh, yes, he also likes liquor and breaks wind loudly (humour alert).
If it wasn’t the story of Azaad, was it about Vikram Singh (Ajay Devgn), the head of a group of dacoits who prefer to call themselves baaghi (rebels), and his pale ladylove Kesar (Diana Penty) who has no role to play except to look helpless? But Kapoor tells their story in two unimpactful flashbacks that don’t let you savour the chemistry of passionate love or the pangs of separation. What’s worse is that Vikram is not only a half-baked character who’s neither here nor there, he even leaves the film abruptly, his exit as ineffectual as his love story.
Did Kapoor go a century back to the 1920s because he wanted to show how cruel the Brits were to the Indians? Apart from all the documented history in print and on celluloid that detail the inhumanity of the British Raj, don’t we remember how well Aamir Khan said it in Lagaan (2001)? The trio that has given a horse the title role has no new sentiment to sell on the atrocities of the British except to caricature a couple of them with one even wooing the young new heroine Janaki (Rasha Thadani). An interesting dimension was the pathetic servility of Indians like Janaki’s father Rai Bahadur (Piyush Mishra) who want to be more Brit than the British. But this too fizzles out after the introductory scenes.
Like the effetely-written Vikram Singh Thakur, the romance between youngsters Janaki and “stable boy” Govind (Aaman Devgan) is also sketchy without sizzle. In fact, there is no fresh, youthful romance to sigh over.
Amit Trivedi makes a feeble attempt to give an OP Nayyar-like equestrian rhythm to ‘Ajeeb o gareeb’ without a lilting melody to go with the hoofbeats.
The inept telling of Azaad the loyal horse, the star-crossed love story of Vikram-Kesar, the bad British who want to ship bonded Indian labour to Africa and the romance between the “stable boy” and the Indian “mem”, ultimately focuses on none of the tracks as it fails to stir any strong emotion in the viewer.
The under-utilised presence of Ajay Devgn and the inability to showcase the potential of two charming newcomers, Aaman Devgan and Rasha Thadani, is like a jockey-less Derby front- runner losing by trotting in the opposite direction.
Azaad Movie – Watch Or Not?: One big neigh.
Azaad Movie Review Score Rating: 1.5 out of 5 (i.e. 1.5/5)
Azaad Movie Official Trailer:
Azaad Official Trailer (Credits:RSVP Movies)
Also Read: Fateh Movie Review: Far Away From Victory