Nikhil Advani’s latest Sony LIV original revisiting the historical events that altered the course of world incidents is a gripping thriller with far too many interesting dialogues.
The 1940s was the era of uncertainty, unpredictability, and unexpected events. Aptly titled Freedom at Midnight written by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins is a narrative non-fiction of pop-history when it was first published in 1975. To take such a tumultuous time period and adapt it to the present OTT era around the politics of contemporary Hindu-Muslim divisive politics is not a teeny-weeny easy adaptation. Nikhil Advani had helmed the responsibility of not tweaking the source material quite very well, even though a few moments were naturally dramatised in the course of visual translation of an exceptional literary non-fiction.
We get to know the history of that era through the makers of modern India: Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azad, etc. The show stealer of the entire season of seven-episodes had to be Rajendra Chawla who played Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The contemporary audience, you and me, will never know how Sardar was back then. Rajendra brought that person alive with his distinct sense of humor as well as the diplomatic-ness of their politics.
The club of 9 writers wrote a wonderful screenplay that had run entirely on the griping and crisp conversations with the ticking sound of a clock as background score composed by Ashutosh Phatak. The intro music is so classy and moody of a periodic drama with the Game-of-thrones-like intro visuals hooks you to the series. The best conversation that the writers had written out of many conversations is the dialogue between Sardar and M K Gandhi. It is a scene of ethical dilemmas.It occurs when Gandhi was ready to even make Jinnah the Prime Minister of United India to prevent the Hindu-Muslim partition. When Sardar implies that India is not a toy to hand it over to M A Jinnah, Gandhi replies, ‘You remember that India is not a toy when it comes to power, but not when dividing the nations into two’. The succinct confrontation of collective dilemmas of idealism and reality through a single conversation is remarkable.
Freedom at Midnight also follows the black and white troupe of every other story built on Indian nationalism. M A Jinnah is portrayed as an unreasonable adamant sycophant. It might be true. He might be the baddest guy in the room, but still, we don’t get to know the human side of his behaviour except that he is always on the constant verge of death due to never-stopping smoking of cigarettes leading to Tuberculosis.
Nikhil Advani’s second stint with Sony LIV after super successful Rocket Boys is also high on quality and content with the sense of periodic aesthetics that keeps you hooked till the end of season.
TeluguFunda Rating: 4/5
There is no official information on Season 2. Till then, Season 1 is available to stream on Sony LIV.
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