The debut-making lead pair of this quaint concoction, Rasha Thadani and Aaman Varma, are refreshingly unspoilt in their screen presence. They would have done even better had they been launched in a contemporary milieu with lots of splashy colours and dancing, something like what Junaid Khan and Khushi Kapoor are seen doing in Loveyappa.
Why is this Disneyesque film set during the British Raj where apparently the whip did all the talking? What Rasha and Aaman get is the toasted-brown ruggedness of the Chambal Valley , more suited to the Bandit Queen than the Pert Princess that debutante Rasha Thadani plays in an underdeveloped part which has no beginning or end.
Under the cloak of a virgin romance Azaad is a masculine film about the boys and the beast. Ajay Devgan playing the indulgent Chachu to the hilt both on and off screen , pitches in an extended cameo Bandit King Vikram Singh who is attached in a Devaresque way with his horse who plays the titular, role.
For those who came in late M. M. A. Chinnappa Devar was a producer from the South in the 1970s who made film on Homo Sapiens and their animal friends like Haathi Mere Saathi, Gai Aur Gori and Jaanwar Aur Insaan.
Fifty years later this film which could aptly be titled Azaad Aur Hazard shows Uncle and Nephew Devgan bonded to a moody horse which does what it wants to, and to hell with logistics.
Azaad, as mentioned earlier, is not so much a celebration of young love as a homage to horse power. The horse race in the climax is well shot and an equestrian treat.
The rugged location and the cinematography by Sethu are unerring in their optic opulence. But the human characters are malnourished. Kesar (played by an ill cast Diana Penty) is a rebel belle alongside Vikram (Ajay) and Govind (Aaman), on her own ride. Even the moody horse get going only after a drink or two. Which seems like a good idea for the writers (Risesh Shah, Suresh Nair and Chandan Arora) who never seem to take that trot into a gallop.
