Awara is a Musical...kind of?

Awara (1951) is a Bollywood film about the son of a rich judge growing up in the slums and turning to a life of crime.  The 2+ hour-long story is told in flashback, with the film beginning during the court scene that resulted from all the drama.

There are several songs in the film, which could lead to the audience classifying it as a musical, but I'm personally on the fence with this topic.  While a musical typically has--what else?--musical numbers that the cast will break out in dance and sing to, the songs are there to provide much more than just cheesy, distracting entertainment.

The songs in a musical are supposed to progress the story along, explaining the situation or how a character feels about said situation.  This is where Awara sort of falls flat.  While the songs do explain the situation or a character's feelings, most of them are sung after the situation or feelings have already been explained through normal dialogue, making the songs seem unnecessary.  In the beginning of the movie, we see the protagonist, Raj, growing up in the slums with his poor, single mother.  He is kicked out of school and is forced to turn to crime in order to provide money for his mother.  This is all shown in detail in very long scenes.  Then, more time progresses and we see Raj as an adult, singing about how he is a tramp and was forced to take up a life of crime.  This song is about something that the audience already spent 30 minutes watching in detail. 

This would not be so distracting if the song took place during the scenes when he was growing up.  Take another musical, for example, The Nightmare Before Christmas.  When Jack Skellington sings about finding Christmas Town, he's singing as he explores the place and its wonders.  This is a lot more effective because it saves time and moves the story along, so the song does not seem pointless.

Awara is a very strong Bollywood narrative with pretty visuals and interesting characters.  While the songs are nice to listen to, I do not think they were all that necessary, or at least, were not used effectively enough.