Screen chronicles of the freedom movement have mostly concentrated on Nehru-Gandhi-Patel and the Congress party on the one hand and revolutionaries such as Bhagat Singh, Uddham Singh, Chandrashekar Azad and Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army on the other. The stories of several men and women who mounted an armed resistance against colonial rule and sacrificed their lives in the bargain have slipped through the cracks of history.Nikkhil Advani, who paid tribute to the elder statesmen of the independence movement in Freedom At Midnight, turns his attention to relatively lesser known heroes in The Revolutionaries. The Prime Video series is based on Sanjeev Sanyal’s Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom. Sanyal happens to be the grand-nephew of Sachindranath Sanyal, one of the heroes of this story.The Hindi series moves mainly between Delhi, Lahore, Calcutta, Dehradun and Benaras during the early 1910s. Rash Behari Bose (Bhuvan Bam) is the central pillar around whom the lives of Sachindranath Sanyal (Rohit Saraf), Jatindranath Mukherjee (Gurfateh Pirzada), Pratibha Lahiri (Pratibha Ranta) and Nanibala Devi (Paoli Dam) revolve.The chief villain is Reginald Dyer (Jason Shah), who later attains notoriety as the butcher of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919. Sanyal’s cousin Abani (Tota Roy Chaudhary) is a dedicated freedom fighter too, who finds ways to stymie Dyer.Bhuvan Bam in The Revolutionaries (2026). Courtesy Emmay Entertainment/Prime Video.The story eventually reaches the Ghadar Mutiny in Lahore in 1915. Bose’s plan to hoist the Ghadar Party’s flag lays the foundation for the INA.As creator and director of the show, written by Akshita Wadhwana, Shobhit Narang, Rutvi Mehta and Sanyukta Chawla Shaikh, Advani glams up history. There are fast-paced chases, songs, a dance number, shots of the heroes striding in slow motion, magnificent colonial-era mansions and havelis, and even a peek into Calcutta’s Chinatown.Bose gets in and out of disguise, like a Bollywood spy. The women too escape notice right under the noses of British cops. Even on the run, the fighters have time to change their costumes.Fact is mixed with fiction to enhance the drama. The paths of Bose and Dyer never crossed. Nanibala Devi died many years later from illness and penury, not due to torture in a British jail.Sanyal and Lahiri did marry. In the show, they get a 1942: A Love Story kind of romance. Lahiri runs away to join Sanyal and his group, tracing him in a vast city, using detection methods learnt by reading Sherlock Holmes stories.Pratibha Ranta and Rohit Saraf in The Revolutionaries (2026). Courtesy Emmay Entertainment/Prime Video.Advani punctuates high-tension scenes and daring escapes with the usual inspiring speeches expected from a history lesson (the cinematography by Gairik Sarkar is excellent). There are other thrillingly staged sequences, such as the theft of weapons from a dock, and the incident of the Komagata Maru ship that is refused permission to enter Canada after the British learn that there are resistance fighters on board despatched by Lala Har Dayal (Neil Bhoopalam).The good-looking actors bring out the passion, sacrifice and fearlessness of the young freedom fighters. Bhuvan Bam, Rohit Saraf and Gurfateh Pirzada get most of the meaty scenes and perform with relish.Jason Shah has the unenviable task of making the nasty Dyer watchable. Dyer’s painful stammer causes him to twist his neck and crumple his face – he’s menacing but also looks ridiculous when he is fuming with frustration.At the end of eight episodes, the next generation of revolutionaries is ready to keep the struggle going, and supply another season. The Revolutionaries is obviously targeting a younger crowd that might like history garnished with action, derring-do and entertainment. If it also serves the purpose of giving forgotten heroes of history their due, bring on the shiny Bollywood filter.