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The three legs on which a film (or any visually-narrated story) sits are the script, direction and editing. A whiz at all three, veteran Manoj Kumar (Upkar, Purab Aur Pacchim, Shor, Roti Kapada Aur Makaan) had stated, “When I shoot, as a director, I cut off some of my excellently-written scenes because they are not needed. When the shoot is complete, I ruthlessly edit scenes that I have filmed,which are not in the interest of the final product, however well-directed they may be.”
Then we have men like V. Shantaram, Raj Kapoor, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, David Dhawan and Rajkumar Hirani, who “edit” a film in their minds so that the length and flow of their movies is crisp.
Over here, with a 400-plus page book (Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom) by Sanjeev Sanyal as the base, the assembly of writers (six, including those credited with “Additional” writing!) act like too many cooks who must have found it quite a job to flesh out the truly vital ibgredients in even a 8-episode web series. With creator-director Nikkhil Advani in charge, the editor (Sagar Manik) also does not seem to have much of a say.
And that is why The Revolutionaries leaves me with a strange dissatisfaction. We recently had a similar patriotic drama in the brilliant Safed Sagar, and more in that zone earlier, but this series leads to just one thought: what might have been: a terrific classic!
Almost 40 years ago, we have an arty treatment of a television serial named Tamas, and even that was consistently gripping. In this one, just when a sequence needs momentum or change, we find an overlong romantic interlude with or without a song. And other extended sequences that were really not needed.
Since the inevitable dramatization does not extend to fictional main characters, this makes it all the more worse, The saga of a small group of freedom fighters and the way they relentlessly fought imperialism depicts real men and women, and Advani has got a great cast. As Rash Behari Bose, Bhuvam Bam is beyond fantastic in his extremely passionate essay. He effortlessly steals the show, and for a man whose main forte is comedy, this is a humongous triumph.
As Bagha Jatin, Gurfateh Pirzada is fabulously intense. Pratibha Ranta again scores high as Pratibha Lahiri. Paoli Dam, known for her glam roles, is outstanding as the resolute Nanibala Devi. Rohit Saraf’s Sachindranath Sanyal is adequate. Jason Shah’s General Dyer is effective even if a shade gimmicky. Tota Roy Chowdhury as Abani Sanyal, Kashish Saluja as Kartar Singh Sarabha, K.C. Shankar as P. N. Tagore and Gireesh Sahdev as Mula Singh are all superb in their respective roles.
Clearly, then, a languorous script gives an actor more time and scope to perform well! But it affects the series as a whole. A story of this genre, presented in any era, but especially in 2026, needed much more pace, energy and thrills.
If I still give an above-average rating for this erratically paced drama, it is both for the high level of performances and the stunning technical aspects—the cinematography by Gairik Sarkar, the production design by Surabhi Verma and the art department (Ankit Gupta, Rohit Nalawade and Jainil Sachde)’s work as well as Ashutosh Pathak’s captivating background score.
And, of course, to another set of real behind-the-scene technical heroes—PhantomFX, Envision VFX and Light N Light VFX Studios, who simply are the true “Revolutionaries” of this saga.
Rating: ***
Amazon Prime Video presents Emmay Entertainment’s The Revolutionaries Produced by: Nikkhil Advani, Monisha Advani & Madhu Bhojwani Created & Directed by: Nikkhil Advani Written by: Sanjeev Sanyal, Akshita Wadhwana, Shobhit Narang, Rutvi Mehta, Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh, Priyanka Dasgupta & Ethan Taylor Music: Manan Bhardwaj, Tushar Joshi, Ashutosh Phatak, Shreyas Puranik & Akashdeep Sengupta Starring: Bhuvan Bam, Pratibha Ranta, Rohit Saraf, Gurfateh Pirzada, Paoli Dam, Jason Shah, Ed Robinson, Pratik Motwani, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Kashish Saluja, Tenzin Bodh, Avijit Dutt, K.C. Shankar, Gireesh Sahdev, Neil Bhoopalan, Anubha Fatehpuria, Riyansh Taneja, Athena Vlachos, Liana Hu & others
