A Starry Horse:
The problem with making a film to launch industry kids is that more often than not, the plot is designed to give them as much of an opportunity as possible to show their talent (or expose the lack of it), rather than giving them a chance to fit the parts chosen for them.
Azaad, directed by Abhishek Kapoor, stars Ajay Devgn’s nephew Aaman Devgan, and Raveena Tandon’s daughter, Rasha Thadani; both might have been more comfortable in a contemporary setting, rather than a period film, in which they are both upstaged by an ill-tempered horse!
The time in 1920, the British rulers are living it up in this arid part of Central India, with the local zamindar Raj Bahadur (Piyush Mishra) toadying up to a Lord Cummings (Dylan Jones) and his weird son James (Andrew Crouch). The zamindar’s son, Raj Bahadur (Mohit Malik) behaves like an evil slave-owner, who whips anyone who displeases him, or drags them behind his horse. The Bahadur father and son, are in business with the Cummingses, for supplying cheap labour to the colonies, which is a human trafficking story worth delving into, but after a cursory mention, everybody gets focused on this handsome horse called Azaad, owned by an outlaw, Vikram Singh (Ajav Devgn). The women in the feudal household include Raj Bahadur’s rebellious wife Kesar (Diana Penty) and haughty sister, Janki (Rasha Thadani).
A village lad, Govind (Aaman Devgan) is passionate about horses, but when he accidentally gets on to a horse from the landlord’s stables, he gets whipped for his insolence. He follows a black horse into the ravines and joins Vikram Singh’s gang, for want of anything better to do. The script, probably exhausted by the subplots that are likely to go nowhere, decides to concentrate on getting Govind friendly with the booze-loving horse, more than wooing Janki, who offers active romantic hints, which the young man ignores.
After Govind has been thrown off by Azaad multiple times (no bones broken), he is able to tame it, and then, where else could this poor man’s Lagaan go but an all-or-nothing horse-racing challenge.
When Ajay Devgn and the horse are off the screen (the latter has a bigger part than all the actors put together), the film loses what little spark it has, because the young leading pair have zero chemistry, poor styling, a still underdeveloped screen presence, roles they could not possibly relate to, and not even a foot-tapping song-and-dance number to help them along. Not too propitious a debut for either of them, though Aaman Devgan has a coltish energy that simply does not find an outlet in this film. Both will have to start with a fresh slate on their next film. As for the horse with almost human emotions and a killer kick, he’s undoubtedly a star, who deserves a film like Black Beauty or National Velvet.
(This piece first appeared in rediff.com)
