Amitabh Bachchan took a semi retirement from films to enter politics in the 1980’s but his career in politics didn't fruitify so he returned to films. But the times were changing.
Aakhree Raasta in 1986 was a moderate success but not a big hit. Shahenshah despite having unprecedented hype, massive opening and huge budget just broke even (except in Mumbai where it did record business). Ganga Jamuna Saraswati proved to be the beginning of his declining slope with critics and audience both rejecting the film. Toofan did average business and Jadugar was the first Amitabh Bachchan film since 1977 to become a disaster.
After this Tinnu Anand, a good friend of Amitabh decided to make a small film with Amitabh which will be content driven, quick to make and to recover the investment quickly. The film was titled Main Aazad Hun (I am Free). The core plot of the film was taken from the film Meet John Doe.
This was the first film when Shabana Azmi worked opposite Amitabh Bachchan (they worked in many films earlier but not paired. Even here there was no romantic angle as such). The film was unconventional in its story focusing on media corruption, ethical degradation of society etc. Amitabh played a common man and despite having an action hero image doesn't have any action scene. Rather than bashing people and saving lives he commits sui***e. The film also had only one song.
Amitabh and Tinnu Anand were expecting to film to garner good profits as the movie had a very low budget (sold at 1.20 crores all territories, in comparison Shahenshah was sold at 5.40 crores all Territories, Toofan at 4 crores, Ganga Jamuna Saraswati at 5.10 crores). But the audience found the film too arty lacking commercial elements. Despite getting positive reviews and a Filmfare award for Best Dialogues for Javed Akhtar. the film surprisingly failed to recoup even the small investment and collected 1.25 crores and flopped.
Main Aazad Hoon remains one of the underrated and under appreciated film of Amitabh Bachchan.