Azaad: Biopic Of A Horse Masquerading As A Pre-Independence Story

IT IS ONLY JANUARY but Abhishek Kapoor’s Azaad might be the most effective debut vehicle you see all year. The filmmaker mounts the debutante in an impressive scale, centers the story around them and extracts a performance that not many would be able to deliver on their first film. There is skill here but there is also screen presence. They never leave our sight, go through the narrative beats with committed conviction and in the runtime proves to be the best actor in the cohort. Azaad might be the most effective debut vehicle of the titular character, Azaad — the horse.

If I had not known better I would have assumed Kapoor’s film is a biopic on a horse. Now that I have seen the film and know better, I still believe it is a biopic on a horse. It is the animal which takes the centerstage in an outing propped as the debut of two nepo babies — Aaman Devgan is Ajay’s Devgn’s nephew, and Rasha Thadani is Raveena Tandon’s daughter — it is the animal that emotes without the caginess that others exhibit. In a film that is set against India’s pre-independence struggle and is as designed with excess emotions as one generally expects these stories to be, it is the horse that showcases credible restraint. Honestly, it is so impressive that Azaad should have been part of promotions, it should open up a separate category of awards (I suggest “neigh”) and take the overnight success well. After all, we know one too many actors who didn’t handle it well.

The others know it too well. Almost all the characters in Azaad are vying for Azaad’s attention. After he is rescued by farmer Vikram Singh (Ajay Devgn), it grows up and develops blind devotion. This stresses Govind out, a young aimless youth in a village (Aaman) who keeps dreaming of owning a horse (don’t ask) and sets his eyes on Azaad. He then goes on to do what most men nursing unrequited love do. He tries to make the horse jealous by riding another horse. If you think this is sexual, let me break it to you that most scenes (featuring the horse) are.

There is too much longing, too much sex noise, and too much riding to not arrive at this reading. All of this is ironic because the rest of the cast have largely-absent chemistry with each other although the premise might suggest otherwise. In Haldighati, a young girl called Janaki (Thadani) locks eyes with a stable boy (Devgan). Societal conflicts are scaled up to justify their love. She is the daughter of a zamindar (Piyush Mishra) and he is the son of their help. Things should happen. Sadly nothing does.

I am not sure if it was the limited acting capabilities of both the new actors, Diana Penty’s refusal to enunciate any dialogue or Devgn’s allergy to emoting but soon everything comes to be centered on Azaad. The horse has the most layered arc, as it drinks (again, don’t ask), pines, loves and at the end runs to the finishing line with an injury as others around him keep dying. The director here might be on to something although I am not entirely sure.

Written by Kapoor, Ritesh Shah and Suresh Nair, Azaad has very little going for it otherwise. The narrative is so bloated that the point soon gets lost. But here’s what I gathered. During the pre-independent era as the British kept inflicting atrocities on Indians, a crop of rebels spawned (Vikram Singh is the leader of the pack), who vowed to deliver justice. Govind soon joins the group and meets Azaad. He tries to win it over, offers it drink and goes through the courtship period, all so that the animal lets him ride it. Honestly, I give up.

With a lack of a plausible plot, the story takes the form of several classics. There is a little bit of Lagaan (a racing competition is scheduled at the end, which if Govind wins then his family and other villagers would get some benefit), there is a bit of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar towards the end, and I believe there is also Devdas as the horse starts heavily drinking in the absence of his beloved. It is only January and of all the things I expected to see in Hindi films, this was not on my mind.

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