The Revolutionaries Review: The sheer chills that one can get while watching even the worst stories about the Indian revolution against the British are an undeniable fact of life. If not for patriotism, it’s also a form of respect and absolute awe that one feels towards the idea that some people, all those years ago, had what it took to stand up against their oppressors to get what is rightfully theirs. They didn’t think about their lives or living peacefully… or even staying alive – all these people wanted was to give future generations a better future.
Half of the work in Prime Video’s The Revolutionaries is done by the magnanimity of the characters whom we see fighting for us. While it’s marketed as the stories of lesser-known freedom fighters, Rash Behari Bose, Sachindranath Sanyal and Bagha Jatin are extremely well-known names and faces for Bengalis who have read even an ounce of history.
The series tries to get behind the scenes of the guns and plans, painting these people as humans who also feel fear and grief but push forward towards their goals. While it’s not the most memorable of shows, it does leave you rooting for its characters more often than not.
The cast includes Bhuvan Bam, Rohit Saraf, Pratibha Ranta, Gurfateh Pirzada, Jason Shah, Kashish Saluja, Edward Robinson, Tota Roy Chaudhary, Paoli Dam, Neil Bhoopalam, K C Shanker, Pratik Motwani, Tenzin Bodh, and Avijit Dutt. The series is directed by Nikkhil Advani.
The Revolutionaries Review
A Different Side of the Freedom Struggle
The series is set during the 1912 freedom movement and is an action-packed and emotional adventure that has the tendency to get a bit melodramatic sometimes. As Rash Behari Bose, Sachindranath Sanyal and Jatindranath Mukherjee go up against General Dyer, the series weaves in and out of revolutionary fights and emotional conflicts that make the series more engaging and worth rooting for. However, the series takes a ton of liberties with the stories and characters and introduces a ton of new things to make it more melodramatic. While that’s not always a bad thing, it’s a bit perplexing to see them create completely new characters to make it more engaging.
The series tries to bring forth the anger and helplessness of Indians living under British rule and what pushed them towards armed struggle. It does a good job of exploring patriotism and revolution as more than an idea or a historical event, turning them into something tangible and rousing. Watching youngsters confront injustices head-on, and not fearing for their safety, is truly an emotional watch.
Four Revolutionaries, Four Perspectives
The series brings together four inspiring revolutionaries with different personalities but a united goal. However, the casting is an interesting choice, considering none of these people knows a lick of Bengali, which is shocking considering, well, these are Bengali freedom fighters. People speak to one another in Hindi in private, speak to those at home in Hindi and, apart from some Bengali being spoken here and there for fan service, there’s a surprising lack of showcasing a very important part of their cultures.
On that note, the casting makes things intriguing and makes things feel a bit modern. Director Nikkhil Advani mentioned in an interview that that was their ultimate goal – to make the story a bit more modern while also holding on to the essence of the struggle. It works in its favour at times, especially with Pratibha Ranta’s character, who doesn’t really exist in Sachindranath Sanyal’s story in reality. I understand the thought behind it, and Ranta does a great job of making viewers root for her as a strong female character, along with Paoli Dam’s Nanibala Devi.
History Meets Action
The action sequences are engaging to watch in The Revolutionaries. The series makes it look realistic, and some moments are truly memorable. I am not a fan of the AI usage and how distracting that feels sometimes, but overall, the fights are believable. Guns, covert operations and a lot of disguises make things engaging and show just how far these people would go to do something for the nation.
The action doesn’t overwhelm the story for the most part, and viewers will find themselves moved and thrilled by the balance the series creates. The action makes us understand what the revolutionaries went through instead of showcasing it mindlessly. The series does a great job; thus, it makes us empathise without overwhelming us.
The Bigger Question of Patriotism
The Indian freedom movement was never a single unified resistance that happened at the same time. It was the efforts of various people, from various places, using different methods to fight against the injustice that was handed to them. The series aims to examine that and expands on the conversation without reducing patriotism to a single ideology or approach.
Final Verdict
Overall, The Revolutionaries does a good job of showcasing a part of the Indian freedom struggle that a lot of people might not be familiar with. It’s not flawless, but it definitely does the job right by painting the revolutionaries as not just people to look up to, but also as regular people with hopes, dreams and fears. In the end, this one’s enjoyable, albeit with its flaws.
What did you think about The Revolutionaries on Prime Video? Let us know in the comments below!
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