Freedom at Midnight doesn’t want to be a show that you curl up to watch on Independence Day, a flag by your side and happiness in your heart. Rather than pride about the struggle that led to the end of British rule in 1947, mortification is the prevailing emotion in , based on the Larry Collins and book of the same name.

The dismantling of the British Raj, which Collins and Lapierre call “that superb and shameful institution” and “the cornerstone and justification of the Empire, its most remarkable achievement and its most constant care”, is soaked in blood and stewed in hatred between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs over Partition. A ticking clock in Ashutosh Pathak’s background score accompanies Abhinandan Gupta’s revisionist adaptation, which has been worked upon by a team of writers.

The final months of colonial rule inexorably lead to the division of India on religious lines. The clock is ticking for the fervent proponents of Partition, the Muslim League, and its anguished opponents, represented by the Indian National Congress.

Confabulations in underlit rooms are contrasted with communal fires raging on the streets of North and East India. Departing British midwives oversee the crimson-smeared birth of Pakistan.

Freedom at Midnight opens with Mahatma Gandhi (Chirag...