Freedom at Midnight review: Powerful portrayal of history we know and yet we don't

Freedom of Midnight is a good attempt by makers to revisit India’s struggle for independence from the British colonial role in the last year. Adapting for the screen from a well-read book by the same name by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, the web show recounts all that must have happened between the then-political factions – clamouring for power, paving the way for Independence, uniting a fragile nation and more. It recounts how stalwarts of the Indian political landscape of 1947 bargained and made some tough choices.

Let’s start with how Freedom at Midnight does not come across as biassed. Since it adapts from a book by authors who were neither pro-Pakistan nor had any vested interests in the Indian side, the seven-part web series sticks to facts. Hence, you can’t say that Nikkhil Advani, the director, had any. 

The cast is fabulous with actors like Sidhant Gupta, Chirag Vohra, Rajendra Chawla, Luke McGibney, Cordelia Bugeja, Arif Zakaria, Ira Dubey, Malishka Mendonsa, K C Shankar, Rajesh Kumar, Pawan Chopra, Anuvab Pal, Khurshed J Lawyer, Shreya Nair, Urvashi Dubey, Andrew Cullum play pivotal roles. Sidhant plays Jawaharlal Nehru, Chirag plays Gandhi, Rajendra plays Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Arif plays Jinnah.

The show is a slow burn in the beginning but it invites you to keep watching. Freedom at Midnight will make you empathise with the characters, the people we have heard about and read about in our history books as Congress tries hard to not let India get divided. The tension is surmountable with Jinnah refusing to budge from his demand of a new nation for Muslims because he fears for their lives in new India. We get to see how heartbreaking it was for the Congress and especially Gandhi to let a line divide the rivers, forests, deserts, and mountains. 

It also serves as a historical reminder of how Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and the rest of Congress were on one side while the Muslim League’s Jinnah was hell-bent on making the partition happen. 

In the acting department, Sidhanth does a decent job as Nehru. Post his Jubilee role, he fits right into the role of India’s first PM. Arif Zakaria is excellent as Jinnah and this may be his best performance to date. Another actor worth a mention is Rajendra Chawla who plays Sardar in the show. His part is strongly written and he comes across as the true architect of the new India. 

Freedom at Midnight does not come across as a history lesson even once and that is its strongest suit. The show comes at a time when we surely needed a reminder of how difficult and violent our past was, and that many lives were laid to get the freedom we have today. 

Freedom at Midnight is streaming on SonyLIV from November 15.