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,
After working with a meticulous appeal in
Rohit Saraf in ‘The Revolutionaries’
| Photo Credit:
Prime Video
Moreover, as the show progresses, the idea of time and space is lost under VFX-infused images and a pulpy background score. Much of its visual vividness, which comes with a blend of pastel colours and incandescent lighting, only paints a romantic picture of the past — one that seems cut off more from hyper-stylistic comic strips than a history book. Due to this, the psychological struggles of choosing the path of violence are overshadowed by a heroic resolve, reducing the extraordinary journeys of Sachindranath Sanyal and Rash Behari Bose into an action set-piece where history only appears to fill-in the blind spots.
Their ideological fervour is seldom touched upon, and there’s more time spent on emotional excesses. What is it that prompted Rash Behari Bose to take up arms? How did Sachindranath Sanyal’s experience during the Ghadar uprising provide a base for him to later form the Hindustan Socialist Republic Association, which would bring together Bhagat Singh and others? These are questions that
The Revolutionaries doesn’t set out to answer, as it singularly focuses on individual moments of bravery, often risking picturing the freedom fighters as hot-blooded youngsters harbouring violent dreams, as seen in a sequence where Rash imagines putting a bullet in the Viceroy’s head and shooting away all Britishers to achieve freedom.
All the efforts to create a mood and atmosphere take away realism from the proceedings, making the revolutionaries feel more like characters from an action-adventure game. Barring Bhuvan Bam, who instils a lived-in charm in his performance, the rest of the cast don’t quite infuse a sense of believability into their acts. It also doesn’t help that the stuffy production and overdone costumes call attention to themselves rather than quietly blending into the lives of the people it seeks to immortalise.
And so, at its optimum, the show begins to feel more like a fantasy. It indifferently recreates historic moments as bullet points. The 1907 Pagdi Sambhal Jatta movement led by Bhagat Singh’s uncle Ajit Singh against oppressive agricultural laws is briefly shown in an episode with the cultural depth of a museum label. Even the life-altering resolve of the Ghadar movement finds a softer release without the contextual complexities.
Hiding somewhere in the show’s gloss is a representation of an oppressive regime that tramples down dissent from its youngsters, uses brute force against independent thought and uses fear to continue its rule — all factors resonant with contemporary times. But
The Revolutionaries drives away without addressing these pressing themes and floats in the ether, where the present is forgotten, the past is deified and history is isolated.
The Revolutionaries is currently streaming on Prime Video
