Nikkhil Advani on ‘Freedom at Midnight’: Chaos, Nehru, and the Cost of Telling History
By the time Nikkhil Advani speaks about Freedom at Midnight, it is clear that this is not just another historical adaptation for him. It is a reckoning—with chaos, memory, responsibility, and the limits of storytelling.Based on Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre’s seminal book, Freedom at Midnight attempts to retell one of the most turbulent moments in Indian history: Independence and Partition. But as Advani makes clear, there was nothing neat, noble, or orderly about it.The Weight of the ‘Tryst With Destiny’Among the many challenges, one moment that felt like an overwhelming moment for the director and that was Jawaharlal Nehru’s Tryst with Destiny speech at the midnight of India’s Independence day. .“I think the Tryst of Destiny speech is not about so much happening. It’s just that it’s such an important speech for India and Indians,in the top three modern and post-modern speeches of our lifetime there is Tryst of Destiny. There is I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr., then there is possibly John F. Kennedy’s speech where he says ask not what the country can do for you but what you can do for the country and maybe Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” Advani explains.He went on to add that getting it right wasn’t optional, “For me to get the Tryst of Destiny speech right… that is something that even Siddharth and I spoke over and over again.Nehru is a colossal figure , you may be having conflicting points of views on Nehru but you cannot deny the fact that he gave an incredible speech.”Independence Was ChaosLooking back at the period, Advani doesn’t romanticise it , “ Because at the end of the day it is very easy for us to turn around and say that they got it wrong ,they shouldn’t have done it this way they should have done it that way.There was chaos, there was confusion, there was lack of information ” He describes the frantic collapse of timelines that led to catastrophe.“The British were supposed to leave in June 1948 after Cyrill Radcliffe came. 10 days after his arrival Mountbatten made it August 1947. Suddenly instead of 13 months to draw borders he was given 5 weeks.”Rumours, fear, and misinformation spread like wildfire.“Nehru is doing this, Jinnah is doing that… It was so much confusion right at the end of the day and it was emotional.”The violence, he says, was unprecedented.“There is a chapter in the book which says that never before and never after had there been so much sexual violence where fathers were killing their daughters and brothers were killing their sisters so they dont end up in the hands of the other community. They were unapologetic, neighbours were killing neighbours. People had become monsters, they had become dark versions of themselves. And in all of this Nehru was worried if ration is going for people at camps, Gandhi is on hunger strike to give Pakistan is Rs 55 crore, princely states were seeking their own independence and then there was attack on Kashmir by the tribals “ Why the Assassin Remains NamelessOne of the most debated creative decisions is the choice not to name Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin onscreen. Advani explains it as a matter of perspective, not politics, “ At the end of 6th episode ,Madan Lal Pahwa ( one of Gandhi attacker) was arrested on 20th January. The entire 7th episode is from the point of view of the DIG, the Home Ministry which is trying to investigate and from the interrogation of Madan Lal Pahwa. None of them knew who was Nathuram Godse, now I am trying to transport you for 6 episodes into 1947, into the battle of Kashmir , into the into the palaces of the princess and just because of my politics I am not going to turn around and tell you his is the guy who shot him , this is his name etc. They (agencies) did not know, they had no clue what his name was they had no clue where he was staying , they found a vest which said NVG in Marina Hotel “ “Even Madan Lal Bawa did not know his name , he knew the guy who had brought him from Pune to Delhi as Kirkire (12:10) he did not even know his name was Karkare So for all intents and purposes the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi was a ghost to the police to the Home Ministry ( and to Madan Lal Bawa so I treated him like a ghost.They had no clue what his name was… they didn’t even know what he looked like.The episode is unravelling through these people. It’s not unravelling through me”, Advani added. What Comes NextEven after Freedom at Midnight, Advani isn’t done with history. He’s already completed shooting Revolutionaries.“Revolutionaries talk about people like you and me, who basically turned around and said why is injustice happening to us and why are we being enslaved because of our colour. They didn’t want to have a dialogue with the British; they just wanted to kick them out. So it’s much younger and more joshila… it’s more raw.” The show stars Bhuvan Bam, Rohit Saraf, Pratibha Ranta, Gurfateh Pirzada.
