The OTT landscape has slowly divided not just the storytelling form but also the audience into two. They now think in terms of what warrants a theatrical visit, and what can be ‘saved’ for its OTT release. This shift has also quietly conditioned us about what to expect from long-form shows. That is why a show like The Revolutionaries appears impressively experimental at first glance, with its clean intent and focus on big-scale spectacle, while still dealing with small-screen restraints and long-form requisites. Despite this balancing act, the show ends up in no man’s land.
Adapted from Sanjeev Sanyal’s Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom, the series tells the story of a group of impassioned rebels—Rash Behari Bose (Bhuvan Bam), Bagha Jatin (Gurfateh Pirzada), and Sachindranath Sanyal (Rohit Saraf)—as they attempt to create a secret network of soldiers and initiate the ‘Ghadar movement’ to wage a war against the British. Directed by Nikkhil Advani, the show leaves no stone unturned in creating an immersive universe with the impressive production design and the gorgeous cinematography.
That, however, also seems to be the problem, since it places excessive emphasis on self-imposed grandiosity and leaves little room to know more about these warriors. Even after spending over 400 minutes with these characters, we struggle to feel familiar with them, their beliefs, or their sense of self. Despite many rousing elevation moments, the writers struggle to establish the heroism of these rebels.
With such a modus operandi, these resilient figures end up as mere catalysts for the larger storytelling arc. And what’s the arc, exactly? We are never sure of it. The timeline jumps are haywire, and the audience never knows where the story is heading or what event it is building toward.
The show also relies too much on worn-out clichés like forced cliffhangers, the ‘almost caught’ moments, and an unfathomable need for a ‘Bollywood treatment,’ best exemplified by its use of one-too-many song sequences.
There are some interesting ideas on the margins, like the Britain-France conflict that unexpectedly works as a boon for the freedom fighters, Dyer’s (Jason Shah) equation with his Indian subordinate Maan Singh, or Har Dayal’s (Neil Bhoopalam) lonely struggles as he attempts to send thousands of secret soldiers from overseas. We also get intriguing glimpses into Dyer’s traumatic childhood, which make him more humane than the heroes we are asked to root for.
It’s admirable that Bhuvam Bam signed on for a role like this, but as Bose, he struggles to bring gravitas to the part. Paoli Dam shows glimpses of brilliance as Pishima. Pratibha Ranta is the most impressive, playing a fiery young woman who manages to spread her wings despite the societal constraints of the time.
The Revolutionaries also operates in a vacuum. We never get a sense of the national mood while these rebels hatch frequent plans against the British Raj. Instead, what the show carries is an element of fan-fiction, where characters often talk with an air of self-aggrandisement. As a show that promised insight into a lesser-known phase of our country’s freedom struggle, The Revolutionaries falls short.