'Freedom at Midnight' returns stronger

A fraught, exciting second season of the series looks back at the months before and after India’s independence

- Uday Bhatia

In the third episode of Freedom At Midnight's second season, Abhishek Banerjee turns up as an unnamed Hindu rioter.

Towards the end, he confronts Gandhi (Chirag Vohra), who's fasting in yet another attempt to end the terrible sectarian violence in Calcutta. He berates the frail old man, yelling at him to eat, confessing to murder, finally breaking down. Gandhi, barely able to speak, advises him to wipe his heart of hatred.

This is a reworking of a scene from Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982) featuring an electric Om Puri, not quite line for line but close. Nikkhil Advani’s series trying its own version feels a bit like payback: you retell our history, we'll redo your retelling. Unlike Attenborough’s saintly version, Gandhi is a fascinating conundrum in the show’s second season, his undiminished sway over the public at odds with his declining political relevance in the months before and after independence. Vohra’s brilliant performance renders him cussed and ornery, yet able to move mountains through sheer force of will—perhaps the most human screen Gandhi yet.