Bhuvan Bam in ‘The Revolutionaries’
| Photo Credit: Prime Video
Whose story is history? A central question that defines the nature of arguments over non-violent and violent approaches to India’s freedom struggle. The reformative stature of Gandhian thought finds opposition in the dramatic valour of Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh. On face value, Nikkhil Advani’s The Revolutionariesseems to side with the latter in its ideological discourse, especially since it adapts Sanjeev Sanyal’s book, Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom. The book’s subtitle is riddled with a sign of otherness, rendering non-violence inconsequential and conveniently co-opting the sacrifices of some young rebels within the singular scope of nationalistic rigour. The series, however, doesn’t build a picture of this dichotomy, remaining committed more to action than to ideas that shape it.After working with a meticulous appeal in Freedom at Midnight, Advani imagines history within the vessel of a masala entertainer in The Revolutionaries, replete with punchy dialogues, dreamy romantic songs and a pacy cat-and-mouse chase between the monstrosity of General Reginald Dyer and the adventures of Rash Behari Bose (Bhuvan Bam), a seemingly simpleton man working in a chemistry lab but secretly harbouring rebellious dreams. The series sets off with the assassination attempt on the Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge, on the eve of Delhi’s declaration as the new capital of the Empire in 1912. Along with an accomplice, Bose is shown heroically throwing a bomb at the incoming procession of the Viceroy. Dyer is assigned to investigate the conspiracy, which soon takes him to the Sanyal mansion in Benaras, where a sophisticated underground movement is slowly taking shape for a violent overthrow of the Empire.The Revolutionaries (Hindi)Director: Nikkhil AdvaniCast: Bhuvan Bam, Rohit Saraf, Pratibha Ranta, Gurfateh Pirzada, Jason Shah, Paoli DamEpisodes: 8Runtime: 40-59 minutesSynopsis: A bunch of young revolutionaries in the 1910s plan a strategic, violent takedown of the British Empire.This is where we meet Sachindranath Sanyal (Rohit Saraf), a novice in the akhara, training to devote himself to the freedom struggle. His track has a coming-of-age reckoning mixed with an often distracting love angle that explores his bond with Pratibha Lahiri (Pratibha Ranta), a fictionalised version of his real-life partner. Even though the two share a lively screen presence, Rohit and Pratibha struggle to belong in this world, as Advani imagines them with a contemporary outlook. His intent to infuse relatability into historical retelling falls apart as it becomes difficult to separate the effects of the spectacle from factual outcomes.
