Nikkhil Advani has spent the last few years telling stories set against some of the most important chapters of India’s history. From Airlift (where he was one of the producers), and Mumbai Diaries to Freedom at Midnight and The Revolutionaries, his work has often explored patriotism through people and circumstances that exist beyond the conventional imagery associated with the idea.
His latest show, The Revolutionaries, turns its attention to four young revolutionaries who chose armed resistance in their fight against British rule: Rash Behari Bose, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Pratibha Lahiri and Bagha Jatin.
With patriotic cinema and stories of national pride becoming increasingly visible in popular culture, Advani does not believe audiences have necessarily developed a fixed template for what such stories should look like. According to him, the responsibility lies with storytellers to determine how they want to approach the subject.
“A template has been set from the storytellers’ point of view, not from the audience’s point of view. If the audience gets moved by a story and connects with it, they will accept it,” he says.
He continues, “For me, Airlift is a patriotic film. Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway is patriotic. Mumbai Diaries is patriotic. At the end of the day, the doctors in the trenches during 26/11 were doing incredible work, only to realise that they had to do it every single day. They are doing their patriotic duty by looking after the oppressed of this city every single day.”
Advani believes patriotism can therefore mean very different things to different people. “Depending on where you want to stand, if your patriotism means that you have to wave the flag, then that is patriotism. For me, it is not that at all. I chose to do Airlift, Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway, and Mumbai Diaries. Patriotism has to be very personal. It cannot be dictated to you that this is patriotic. It’s a personal thing.”
That idea also informed the way Advani approached the characters in The Revolutionaries. Rather than presenting patriotism as a single, uniform idea, the series follows individuals who made very different choices in their fight against British rule. Based on Sanjeev Sanyal’s book Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom, the series brings together figures including Rash Behari Bose, Bagha Jatin, Sachindra Nath Sanyal and Pratibha Lahiri.
Advani points to Pratibha Lahiri, played by Pratibha Ranta, as one example of what patriotism can mean beyond the battlefield. “I feel that Pratibha’s character in The Revolutionaries is explaining to the man she’s betrothed to that I’m not asking for your permission. I’m asking for your support. I’m telling you that I want to be part of this revolution. That’s patriotic for me, because she’s taking a stand for all women. She’s become an inspiring example.”
On the other end of that spectrum is Rash Behari Bose, played by Bhuvan Bam, whose approach is far more direct.
“On the other side, Rash Behari Bose decides that let’s throw a bomb on the Viceroy and blow him up. So patriotism is like a spectrum. That stand is not taken by the audiences. It’s been taken by us,” he concludes.
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