Cast: Sidhant Gupta, Chirag Vohra, Rajendra Chawla, Luke McGibney, Cordelia Bugeja, Arif Zakaria, Ira Dubey, Malishka Mendonsa

Crew: 
Based on Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre's book Freedom at Midnight
Created by Nikkhil Advani
Written by Adwitiya Kareng Das, Abhinandan Gupta, Gundeep Kaur, Revanta Sarabhai, Divy Nidhi Sharma, Ethan Taylor
Cinematography by Malay Prakash
Editing by Shweta Venkat
Music by Ashutosh Phatak
Produced by Nikkhil Advani, Monisha Advani, Madhu Bhojwani
Directed by Nikkhil Advani

Genre - Period Drama
Streaming on Sony LIV 
No: of episodes: 07
Released on 15th November 2024 

Freedom at Midnight Web Series is an adaptation of the book written by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre in 1975 about Indian Freedom and partition. The book talks largely about the politics behind Indian sub-continent being divided into two countries based on religion. This partition did change the future of the nations where both have become archenemies. Nikkhil Advani, directed and created the series for Sony LIV. Let's talk about it in detail. 

Plot: 

The series follows series of events that happened before India got freedom and parted into two countries. Better to watch than describe. But briefly, the story starts off with discussions about Indian sovereignity and creation of Pakistan in 1946. It deals with the drama that enforced the decision of two separate countries to be formed in 1947 before finally, both acquired freedom from colonial rule. 

Analysis: 

Performances of actors like Sidhant Gupta, Chirag Vohra have been slightly inconsistent. Them playing historic figures like Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, respectively, they needed to be more consistent and realistic. Their performances could have lifted the series from being a mediocre attempt at best. Rajendra Chawla and Arif Zakaria as Sardar Vallabhai Patel and Mohammad Jinnah, respectively, stun us with their performances. Their capability to look like characters and perform extraordinarily save some episodes from falling into traps of melodrama. 

The slow burning nature of drama does hurt few episodes as the story stretches too much in those parts. The kind of sensible content that the series harbours, one expects much better handling of these aspects. With huge amount of emphasis on Nehru - Gandhi dynamic and then slightly on religion based hate speeches, the series needed  little bit more pacy narrative in middle episodes with more deep look into characters and psychology. At times, things feel more stretched than necessary and at places apt. 

Such inconsistency in pacing could have been avoided with much more focused and simplistic narrative with more research on the topic in hand than just sticking to the book. But the story and things happened before Indian freedom in history are so interesting that we do not feel like not watching the series. It could have been much better with writing focusing more on Jinnah and Patel dynamic. Even though the technical aspects and production values are top notch, the writing does drag down the impact little bit. 

If you are looking to get a quick tour into history to know about how partition has happened and under what circumstances, you can give this one a try. It is an easy watch even though it is a slow burn in pacing and narrative. 

In Conclusion: 

A watchable history lesson. 

Rating: 2.5/5