Azaad (1955) :
Brief Review -
A classic old Bollywood-style blockbuster by Dilip Kumar that extended Hollywood's popular Robinhood formula. People across the world knew the Robinhood formula through Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn as they portrayed the lead roles in the classic swashbuckling adventures from old Hollywood. Indians, and specifically Hindi audiences, were unaware of it. A few Bollywood films attempted the same formula in the 1940s, but none of them went on to reach as wide audiences as Dilip Kumar's Azaad did in the mid-50s. Azaad is a proper mainstream entertainer from the Golden Phase, which might have taken the idea from Robinhood but has given it a smart extension and masaledar Indian touch. The film has that one memorable song, "Apalam Chapalam," which has a cult following even today. Even until the last decade, I used to see the primary school students picking up this song for the annual gathering function. It is that popular. I only wonder how they kept Meena Kumari off screen in that song. Her character has a couple of her own songs for singing and dancing; why didn't they use her in this iconic song? Excluding Apalam Chaplam, Azaad still has a superhit music album, with a couple of more songs coming out as hit numbers. The dialogues and action are superb. It's exactly how you'd imagine a commercial potboiler, with a perfect storyline and enough twists. They can't be called twists because the viewers already know that all those characters are played by the same man, Dilip Kumar. What a charismatic face and aura this man had! Handsome and talented. Azaad is all about his versatility and Meena Kumari's grace. Pran has a smaller role comparatively, but Raj Mehra and Om Prakash have done exceedingly well. S. M. Sriramulu Naidu's film deserved to be one of the biggest grossers of the year. If it hadn't been for Shree 420's chartbuster album and Raj Kapoor's trademark social message, Azaad would have been the biggest film of 1955. As a whole, a complete Bollywood-style entertainer in every aspect.
RATING - 7.5/10*
By - #samthebestest.
