Ram
Madhvani’s
series
is
all
over
the
place
and
also
boring
to
watch,
complains
Deepa
Gahlot.
The
words
inspired
by
true
events
are
written
and
crossed
out
after
the
title
The
Waking
Of
A
Nation.
It
is
as
if
Ram
Madhvani,
creator
and
director
of
the
historical
series,
has
come
up
with
his
own
theory
—
one
that
never
occurred
to
historians
down
the
ages
—
about
the
terrible
Jallianwala
Bagh
massacre
of
1919.
Then,
after
six
episodes
of
the
show
(on
SonyLiv),
there
is
nothing
new
uncovered.
Or
even
the
oft-repeated
incident
retold
with
any
great
degree
of
empathy.
In
our
country,
it
is
difficult
to
fudge
history,
but
filmmakers
in
the
West
have
given
their
own
fictional
twists
to
well-known
historical
events,
with
what
if?
questions
raised.
Quentin
Tarantino’s
Inglourious
Basterds, comes
to
mind,
with
its
alternate
retelling
of
history,
and
two
converging
plots
to
assassinate
Nazi
leaders
in
Paris.
The
Waking
Of
A
Nation
is
mostly
the
awakening
of
one
Indian
lawyer,
Kantilal
Sahmi
(Taaruk
Raina),
educated
in
London,
who
believed
in
British
justice.
After
seeing
what
Amritsar,
Punjab
and
the
rest
of
the
country
suffered,
he
changed
from
trousers
to
a
dhoti
and
was
appointed
as
one
of
the
three
Indians
on
the
Hunter
Commission
that
was
appointed
to
inquire
into
the
events
in
Punjab.
Sahni
mostly
paces
the
courtroom
addressing
with
a
deadpan
face
the
crowd
instead
of
members
of
the
commission,
waving
a
notebook
with
his
finger
as
a
bookmark
on
the
same
page,
which
he
didn’t
even
refer
to.
The
show
adopts
a
complicated
format
of
jumping
back
and
forth
across
timelines,
which
really
adds
nothing
to
the
story,
already
too
well
known
to
Indian
viewers.
General
Reginald
Dyer
(played
by
Alex
Reece)
had
ordered
firing
on
a
peaceful
gathering
at
Jallianwala
Bagh
in
Amritsar,
at
which
400
people
were
killed
and
many
more
injured.
A
blood-stained
paper
with
‘Conspiracy’
written
across
it
appears
like
a
motif,
as
Sahni
tries
to
prove
that
the
massacre
was
pre-planned.
Considering
history
books
name
the
then
Lieutenant
Governor
of
Punjab,
Michael
O’Dwyer
(played
by
Paul
McEwan)
as
responsible
for
the
problems
in
the
state,
there
is
no
great
revelation.
Madhvani
does
give
some
background
to
the
unrest
in
Punjab,
following
the
stringent
Rowlatt
Act
(that
allowed
for
indiscriminate
arrest
and
detention
of
freedom
fighters,
and
the
arrest
of
leaders
Satyapal
and
Kitchlew,
who
had
managed
to
maintain
peace
in
Amritsar
against
all
provocation
by
the
British
army.
When
violence
does
break
out,
and
a
few
British
citizens
are
brutally
killed,
the
authorities
stamp
down
on
all
protests.
Sahni
has
a
Bollywood-style
friendship
with
a
Sikh
soldier
Hari
Singh
Aulakh
(Bhawsheel
Singh
Sahni)
and
a
Muslim
journalist,
Allah
Baksh
(Sahil
Mehta),
whose
fates
open
his
eyes
to
British
atrocities.
There
is
an
Indian
informer
Hansraj
(Adhyay
Bakshi),
who
seems
to
be
everywhere
at
once,
with
his
misinformation,
and
getting
the
locals
to
what
the
British
authorities
want.
While
Amritsar
is
burning,
O’Dwyer
is
seen
an
a
jungle
camp,
talking
of
how
to
keep
savage
Indians
in
check
and
the
‘white
man’s
burden’.
(Later,
he
was
assassinated
by
Udham
Singh,
while
Dyer,
the
Butcher
of
Punjab,
retired
peacefully
to
his
village
in
the
UK.)
In
the
series,
Sahni
acts
like
a
detective
to
expose
a
conspiracy,
which
wasn’t.
History
does
record
that
the
Jallianwala
Massacre
caused
widespread
anger
and
led
to
the
non-cooperation
movement.
Using
archival
footage
as
well
as
making
newly
shot
sequences
look
like
black
and
white
news
clips,
Madhvani
recreates
that
terrible
chapter
in
Indian
history,
but
the
series
is
all
over
the
place
and
also,
in
spite
of
the
dash
of
the
thriller
element,
boring
to
watch.
The
recent
Freedom
At
Midnight
(directed
by
Nikkhil
Advani,
also
on
SonyLiv)
was
a
far
more
accurate
and
interesting
historical
web
series.
In
The
Waking
Of
A
Nation,
a
few
sporadic
scenes
may
stand
out
—
like
Aulakh’s
wife
Poonam
participating
in
the
freedom
struggle
and
editing
a
newspaper,
and
for
its
implausibility,
the
scene
in
which
O’Dwyer
comes
to
Sahni’s
home
and
forcibly
teaches
his
father
how
to
use
a
knife
and
fork.
It
does
not,
however,
come
together
as
a
whole
either
as
a
historical
account,
or
as
a
fresh
look
at
the
tragedy
to
unearth
unknown
facts.
There
is
no
particularly
noteworthy
performance
though
the
British
actors
acquit
themselves
well
and
do
not
look
like
caricature
firangiss,
even
the
snooty
female
medic
who
would
rather
die
than
wear
a
burqa
to
escape
rioting
mobs.
The
Waking
Of
A
Nation
streams
on
SonyLiv.
The
Waking
Of
A
Nation Review
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