CLINGS TO FACTS BUT SACRIFICES THE DRAMA

You can hear a clock ticking in almost every scene of Freedom at Midnight. The historical drama chronicles the events that led to India's independence, dampened by the horrific reality of the Partition.

- KARTIK BHARDWAJ

The clock serves as an instrument of urgency. But you never feel a sense of impending doom as a country's fate is being decided behind closed doors. What could have been a riveting thriller, functions as a drama that is rather mellow. The details are dense but the storytelling remains straightforward. We are left informed but not necessarily involved. Watching the show was like seeing through a glass wall, as the makers of modern India, and Pakistan, MK Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, MA Jinnah and Lord Louis Mountbatten debated over the destinies of millions. But you are never there.