Follow Us
Join Us
Business rating: 1/5 star
Star cast: Sachin J. Joshi, Candice Boucher, Aarya Babbar, Samy Gharbi, Ravi Kishan, Alyy Khan, Sarita Choudhury, Sajid Hassan, Dalip Tahil.
What’s Good: The action scenes; the cinematography.
What’s Bad: The confusing screenplay; the performance of the new hero; the unconvincing climax.
Verdict: Aazaan will not achieve much at the box-office.
Loo break: A couple in the second half.
Watch or Not?: Watch it for the breathtaking action scenes.
JMJ Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and Alchemia Films’ Aazaan (A) is the story of a conspiracy of Doctor (Sajid Hassan) to destroy an entire nation (India) by biological warfare, and the fight of one man, Aazaan Khan (Sachin J. Joshi), to save his country.
As science and technology break new grounds, the face of global terrorism gets ugly. Doctor, an ex-CIA agent, is the father of biological warfare. He has invented myriad ways to push a country to the point of destruction. His evil plan for India begins with the sensational bombings at the peace festival in Germany. The second step in India’s destruction is his heinous plan to spread the dreaded Ebola virus amongst the general public. Doctor is backed by a powerful nation which is very interested in the annihilation of India.
Aazaan Khan is a young and upright army officer working for RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) in India. He is of a mixed lineage of Afghan-Indian parents. As part of his duties, he gets drawn into the murky world of espionage only to discover that his younger brother, Aman Khan (Neet Mohan), is a suspected terrorist. How Aazaan saves his country is revealed in the film. Helping him is Afreen (Candice Boucher), a pretty sand artist from Tangier. She paints stories in sand. From the minute she sees Aazaan, she can look deep into his soul. She shows him the path to redemption and he responds with love.
The person who asks Aazaan to contact the sand artist is Mahfouz (Dalip Tahhil) who is relentlessly working to save the world from Doctor’s evil plans. Mahfouz is killed by Doctor but he gives Aazaan a golden piece of advice – to contact the sand artist – even as Aazaan is trying in vain to save him (Mahfouz). Aazaan establishes contact with the sand artist and meets little Sofiya who is with the sand artist and whose blood will ultimately cure those struck by the virus. Pandey (Ravi Kishan) and Sam Sharma (Alyy Khan) are RAW agents working in India in close connection with Aazaan (who is travelling to various countries) and Menon (Sarita Choudhury), who works for the Interpol.
Aazaan Review – Script Analysis
Shubhra Swarup, Heeraz Marfatia and Prashant Chadha’s story about biological warfare is quite new for the Indian audience but it is so confusing that the viewers won’t follow the whys and the whos in the plot. Strangely, while the points about the biological terror have been explained in a simplified manner, the basic drama about why characters are doing what they are doing and how they are related to one another is not clearly explained. Shubhra Swarup’s screenplay is more confusing than a jigsaw puzzle because of which the audience is unable to understand the drama and even enjoy the wonderful stunts. More time of the viewers is lost in trying to decipher what’s happening on the screen, in the absence of a simplified and well-explained screenplay. For instance, the visions Aazaan gets of his childhood are explained too late in the film. Why Afreen can connect with Aazaan’s soul is just not explained. Even the point of Aman Khan being a terrorist has been only loosely explained. The relevance of Imaad (Aarya Babbar) and Malak (Samy Gharbi) is not very clear.
Worse, perhaps, is the emotional connection of the story with the audience. So much prominence has been given to the stunts in the film that the emotional connection of the characters with the viewers is almost completely ignored. As a result, the public is not even thrilled when one man does all he can to save his country. Even his death-defying stunts leave the audience almost unconcerned for his well-being. Why Aazaan Khan does not escape in the end with the aid of the parachute, when he could have easily done so by strapping Sofiya to himself, is also not explained. Instead, he keeps fighting with the villain’s henchmen. Dialogues, penned by Shubhra Swarup, are ordinary. There are too many dialogues in English and other foreign languages, and the use of subtitles in Hindi and English don’t make things much better.
Aazaan Review – Star Performances
Sachin J. Joshi makes an ordinary debut. He shines in the extraordinary stunts but leaves a lot to be desired as far as his acting is concerned. He needs to work very hard on his facial expressions and body language. He has minimum dialogues to mouth, which looks weird. He also needs to look less chubby. Candice Boucher looks pretty and does reasonably well. Aarya Babbar is alright. Samy Gharbi is good in action scenes. Ravi Kishan leaves a mark. Alyy Khan does a fine job. Sarita Choudhury stands her own. Sajid Hassan plays Doctor with effortless ease but considering that he is the brain behind such a heinous crime, his role is quite insignificant and short. Dalip Tahhil acts ably. Vijayendra Ghatge does a fine job. Sachin Khedekar is effective. Amber Rose Revah is cute and promising as Sofiya. Neet Mohan is okay.
Aazaan Review – Direction & Music
Prashant Chadha’s narration concentrates only on the action and stunts and almost ignores the story part of the drama, which makes it quite difficult to understand. In that sense, his direction leaves plenty to be desired. But he has given the film an international look with his stylised shot-takings. Action and stunts, composed are terrific and, in fact, the film’s mainstay. The action scenes and foreign locations have been excellently captured by cinematographer Axel Fischere. Music (Salim-Sulaiman) is beautiful. The Afreen song is excellent; the Bismillah number is also appealing. Song picturisations needed to be far more eye-filling. Production values are grand.
Aazaan Review – Komal Nahta’s Verdict
On the whole, Aazaan may be a well-mounted and well-shot film but it won’t make any mark at the box-office because it will not connect with the Indian audiences, thanks to its confusing screenplay. Its heavy cost will prove to be yet another stumbling block, given its dull opening.
Aazaan Trailer
Komal Nahta, the Editor of Koimoi.com, is Bollywood’s most trusted trade analyst & film reviewer. You can follow him on Twitter and check out his Video Blog.
