Freedom at Midnight review: Interestingly, Nikhil Advani’s new series is released on the same day as his directorial debut. Kal Ho Naa Hohis 2004 romantic comedy, returns to theaters for its 20th anniversary on November 15. In those two decades – Nikkhil has gone from rom-coms to gritty dramas, and his latest work shows just how crucial his voice is to bringing balance and prestige to the increasingly volatile streaming landscape.

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India’s answer to The Crown

It is quite surprising that Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre’s 1975 book about the final part of India’s freedom struggle has not been adapted into a film or show in the nearly 50 years since its release. Watching Nikkhil’s adaptation feels like it has taken its own sweet time to form, breathe and make its presence known. It’s not a rush job by any means, whether it’s the research that’s gone into the production design, the detail that’s gone into the actors’ prosthetics, or even the intricacies invested in the show’s dialogue.

There have been films on India’s freedom struggle galore, including 3 films alone on revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. But Freedom At Midnight chooses to stick to the mainstream, wisely limiting its scope to mostly the two years between India’s independence and Partition. It follows the events of the Gandhi-Jinnah conversation in 1944 and strategically pulls down the curtains just before the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The impending, inevitable pain of Partition never lets us enjoy the longed-for independence for too long.

Of course it’s not as expansive but Freedom at Midnight will be the closest thing to what The Crown is to the UK. It gives us an insider’s account of what went on behind closed doors at the Viceroy’s House and the headquarters of the Indian National Congress – illuminating all the complications, compromises, small victories and ideological conflicts. It feels like both an epic and an authentic retelling because of not only its scale, but also its diversity. Either we have seen films on this subject swear by shuddh hindi or their essence has been wasted by English dialogues and treatment (eg: Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi). Freedom At Midnight captures India in all its rich and diverse glory – where people speak Punjabi, Gujarati, Hindi and English – not just the British but also the highly trained Indian freedom fighters.

No man’s story

It also helps that Freedom at Midnight isn’t a biopic—it’s not obsessed with any particular figure. Viceroy’s House – Gurinder Chadha’s 2017 historical was also partly adapted from Freedom at Midnight – but its focus was decidedly on India’s last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten and his wife, Lady Mountbatten. Nikkhil Advani’s show, however, is more India-centric and covers the entire spectrum between Gandhi’s non-violent, truth-driven idealism and Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s exploitative, communal incitement to violence. It’s quite a wide stretch between both ends, populated by the likes of Jawharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, and Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, India’s first Home Minister.

When Freedom at Midnight crosses this gray space, it remains the most engaging. For example, Sardar Patel, whose birth anniversary is now celebrated as National Unity Day, is ironically shown as one of the first leaders to capitulate to the idea of ​​Pakistan. He was a nationalist, but also a realist who reasoned that the finger should be cut off before the poison reaches the arm. Similarly, Jawaharlal Nehru, known as a symbol of socialism and secularism, did not abandon his idealistic position for very long, even though hundreds of his innocent Indians were massacred in riots across the country.

Of course, Jinnah is shown as all-evil, but his motives are established early on – he operates from a place of ego, jealousy with Gandhi, a selfish streak to leave a lasting legacy – and not from the moral ground of getting his people their own land . His hypocrisy is revealed in two key scenes. First, when he tries to convince the Shiromani Akali Dal to align with him by saying that Pakistan is for everyone, not just Muslims. The Sikh leader then asks Jinnah why he is fighting for a separate nation then, if the idea is for everyone to live together. In another scene, when the British won’t allow him to merge all of Punjab and Bengal into Pakistan because they also have a large Hindu population, his sister Fatima Jinnah stomps her feet, saying that identities are more regional than religious. How rich comes from Jinnah family?

Nikkhil and his team of writers also manage to show something new about Gandhi. Although he was the pioneer of non-violence in the Indian freedom struggle, he also had a tenacious ability to oppose violence. Violence not against him, but against others. Naturally, the bloodshed affected him deeply, but Gandhi’s outlook got the better of his intolerance of violence. We see everyone from Sardar Patel, Nehru and even the Mountbatten’s capitulating to the trials of partition after witnessing the aftermath of the riots first hand. But Gandhi does not give in to this knee-jerk reaction. He is a true statesman – he thinks about the next generation and how an emotional reaction to a momentary problem can cause decades of irreversible, unrelenting trauma.

Characters before actors

Nikkhil and his casting director assemble an ensemble cast that prioritizes characters over actors. For example, Sidhant Gupta, who broke out as aspiring filmmaker Jay Khanna in Vikramaditya Motwane’s period drama Jubilee last year, is cast as Nehru in Freedom at Midnight. He certainly looks the part – even thought his skin looks undeniably young at 57. Sidhant gives Nehru the modern twist it desperately needed – showing him as a competent lawyer who speaks impeccable English and wears impeccable suits , but who still cares deeply about not only the nation, but also the ideals he lives by. His pride is as evident for a free India as his ache for a divided one.

Arif Zakaria as Mohammed Ali Jinnah is possibly the most appropriate casting. The actor organically evokes contempt and invincibility. Although he is physically pale and cannot say more than two sentences without coughing, his blank eyes and steely spine are enough to convey his formidability. Casting Gandhi is always tricky territory, but Chirag Vohra pulls off this Herculean task with enviable gravitas. His transformation from a young, raw Gandhi to the old, wise father of the nation is a little stark but still completely convincing. His gaze and gait enhance the immersive prosthetics and make him the most striking Gandhi in our cinema, probably next to Dilip Prabhavalkar’s turn in Lage Raho Munna Bhai.

Sardar Vallabbhai Patel is the wild card of the show, just as he was in the Indian freedom struggle. Apart from Sardar, Ketan Mehta’s definitive 1993 film starring Paresh Rawal, Patel has not been given the celluloid space he deserves. Rajendra Chawla gives Sardar Patel the grit and gentleness he was known for. A shrewd politician, an effective leader, a determined home minister, a rarely submissive but never dismissive follower, Sardar Patel is given more nuances than he ever got on screen. It’s also good to see Rajesh Kumar, best known for playing Rosesh in Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai, venture out of his stereotype and essay Liaquat Ali Khan, Jinnah’s rabble-rousing partner-in-crime.

However, the women get the short end of the stick. Malishka Mendonsa, Mumbai’s popular radio jockey, is an interesting Sarojini Naidu but her role is largely limited to that of the messenger. Fatima Jinnah (Ira Dubey) is presented as a fierce woman with a mind of her own, but over the course of the show, she has been reduced to either a sounding board or a caretaker for her brother. Lady Mountbatten is also established to be on par with her husband, but like the story, even the show is forced to treat her less as the self-proclaimed communist sympathizer and more as a submissive slave to the crown. Her sadness at seeing the plight of Indian women during riots therefore feels very ineffective. So do a couple of set pieces to make the proceedings more layered than they already are – like Nehru and Patel losing their way out of the Viceroy’s house.

That’s the thing about historians – they have to stick to the truth, but also create an engaging watch. Interesting bits can be cherry-picked, but omissions are often punished. Nikkhil Advani had the crutch of ready-made source material and Rocket Boy’s trust in his favor. Initially, Freedom at Midnight feels like it’s derived from the hit show produced by Nikkhil and directed by Abhay Pannu, given its subdued, luminescent lighting and rousing background score (tailored from songs like Vande Matram and Rabindranath Tagore’s Ekla Cholo Re). But when the bell strikes, it soon awakens “to life and liberty,” like a nation fresh from the shackles of the colonizer.

Freedom at Midnight is now streaming on SonyLIV.