Azaad

Overview: This movie was entertaining enough, with an interesting and novel storyline. However, it was just too long, cutting 30 minutes of the movie would have served it well to make the story more compact and engaging. Let's be clear the purpose of this movie was to launch two new actors Aaman Devgan and Rasha Thadani and with that in mind it did give the two young actors plenty of screentime to showcase their acting chops.

The movie was clearly an opportunity to launch 2 "star kids" but was done with a unique storyline which I did appreciate.

Plot: This period piece centers around village boy Govind (Aaman Devgan), and his love for horses. As a peasant he does not have money to access or own a horse of his own. Through a series of events, he ends up joining the gang of freedom fighter Vikram Singh (Ajay Devgn), and later on inherits his legendary horse, Azaad. The rest of the movie is about him bonding with this impressive horse as well as helping his village folk out of their debt struggles. This is interlaced with a love story with daughter of the landlord, Janaki (Rasha Thadani).

Acting: I was really impressed by Aaman Devgan as an actor. In the role of Govind, he put in a solid showing with what was potentially a challenging role. Excited to see more of him as he clearly has acting talent and is a good dancer as well. Rasha Thadani on the other hand was more of a disappointment, her accent was not great for the role she was playing, she was not able to get rid of that South Bombay accent. Also, there was some really unbelievable fake crying from her. That being said her portrayal was not terrible and it is her first movie, we could see improvement from her yet. All other performances are decent with nothing exceptional, and Ajay Devgn makes a brief appearance mostly to support his nephew.

Music: Music is generally good and adds to what is going on onscreen.

Conclusion: Worth a watch, it is entertaining, but it isn't going to blow you away. You will also probably find it repetitive and draggy in the middle.

6/10.