faroukgulsara

It seems that we have not changed much since our days as cavemen. Imagine living exposed in a world so hostile we would have tried to understand the unusual things around us. We continued compartmentalising the living and non-living things amongst us even when we became hunter-gatherers, farmers or city dwellers. By compartmentalising everyone in boxes, we thought we had our defences up to remind us which one of them was friends and which were potentially harmful. Gone are club-carrying or sabre-rattling days, but these classifications helped somewhat.

The Chinese viewed anyone non-Huns as barbaric. So did the Greeks, Persians and Arabs. During the mercantile era, the dark-skinned were labelled as God-sanctioned slaves.

In the USA, post-Civil War America assumed that the emancipated slaves were ill-prepared to fit into modern society. They expected them to remain the subservient ones. They were prevented from getting into mainstream business, education and even usage of common public amnesties. In their own stride, the Blacks did prosper. Records showed the presence of significant numbers of black entrepreneurs and millionaires all through the late 19th century. There were pockets of prosperous descendants of slaves. Such a vicinity was Tulsa in Oklahoma. Like the Osage Nation, there were abundant automobile-owning, well-suited professionals there. Tulsa was fondly called 'The Black Wall Street' because of the burgeoning business activity there.

There may be better places to learn about Catherine the Great, her supposed greatness and Russian history than this miniseries. With the liberal use of the creative licence and the need to lure viewers to the miniseries, the moviemakers have taken the liberty to mix and match events haphazardly. There is plenty of exhibition of flesh in different stages of undressing.

A European history student may cringe at how historical figures are interchangeable at will here.

For the records, Catherine II was not Russian but Sophia of Prussian origin. She was not of aristocratic breed. Sophia was married off to Peter III at the age of 17. She embraced Orthodox Christianity, learned Russian, and was immersed in its culture.

Unlike what is depicted in the series, Peter III was not Peter I's son but his grandson. Peter I (Peter The Great) was the one who established the Russian Empire. After Peter the Great's unceremonious demise, his second wife, Catherine I, took the helm. The rule was chaotic, and civil unrest was the order. Catherine I's rule was short. So was her grandson's, a teenage Peter II's.

Peter III, Catherine I's other grandson, only ruled for six months before his wife, Sophia, who assumed the name Catherine II, arm-twisted him in a coup and put him under house arrest. This is far different from what is supposed in the show, where they have a love-hate lovey-dovey relationship with various expressions of carnal passion.

Soon after his incarceration, Peter III died under mysterious circumstances. The official cause of death was something as ridiculous as 'haemorrhoid colic'. There was a running joke amongst diplomats who wanted to avoid a Russian posting. They would cite fear of death as they already had piles!

Funny. After her death, Peter III was supposed to have inherited the throne from Queen Elizabeth I, his maternal aunt. What do you know? She is seen here giving motherly advice on royal etiquette, marital advice, and even ideas on how to rule the Empire.

Catherine II and the whole of the Russian Empire are known to be promiscuous and to be indulged in much sexual debauchery. And the miniseries maximised it to tilt. Sex sells. Catherine II is known to have had multiple lovers, just like any male emperor would have, for political reasons.

Another interesting observation in this miniseries is the character named Pugachev. Here, he assumes the role of Peter III's bodydouble to confuse possible assassins. From my understanding, the closest he came to Peter III was broadcasting to the serfs that he was indeed Catherine II's estranged husband. Pugachev started a rebellion with the support of the serfs. It did not succeed, of course.

Catherine II's CV shows that she introduced smallpox vaccination to Russians, even before Edward Jenner made inoculating cowpox exudates to stimulate immunity against smallpox. She had picked this up from the Persians, who learned from the Hindus.

Despite its historical inaccuracies, the miniseries was a humorously entertaining one, though. With witty, well-written script with wordplay and innuendoes, it was a delight to watch if one does not mind the Russian aristocracy speaking polished English! Be prepared for many F-bombs and toilet humour. As per the disclaimer, the producers have forewarned us that it is an occasionally true story.

26,000 Indians had died under the banner of Indian National Army (INA) while fighting for Independence of India. Their actions triggered the Royal Indian Navy mutiny, which nailed the coffin of the British occupancy in India. The plea for Independence and the spirit of Indianness were supported by the diaspora outside India just to be sizzled out by the historical turn of events. They say that history is written by the victors. This is one clear proof of this statement. History had vilified the efforts of INA and had labelled them as traitors. Their agitations had been marked, not as nationalism but as treason.

Their rebel yell, Dilli Chalo (Let's go Delhi), was not in keeping with the narrative of the day then, as dictated by the Father of India and supported by the Congress Party. These people wanted India to be a British dominion to be given crumbs by their colonial masters. As such, Gandhi et al. decreed that Indian should be fighting for the cause of the Allied Forces to stay loyal to their master's path.

Subash Chandra Bose wanted full Independence from the British, not being a protectorate of Britain. He definitely did not believe that Gandhi's non-violent path would lead to self-rule. He managed to garner support from all the enemies of the British and the Allied Forces. At a time when India, being the subject of the British, was expected to fight for against the Axis Alliance, Bose lobbied for an Army to march with the Japanese against British in their Burmese campaigns. Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) was his brainchild, armed by the Japanese Imperial Army and financed by contributions expatriate Indian civilian volunteers of Malaya and Singapore. Hence, he was labelled as a traitor and enemy of the state.

Even though the operatives eventually turned out to be a dangerous one and had to be abandoned due to logistics as the Japanese found the whole exercise an uphill task, the INA did leave its mark. They stirred Indian nationalism. They were instrumental in initiating the Royal Indian Navy mutiny which expedited the British exit from the subcontinent. They were also the first Army (after Russia) to recruit a whole regiment comprising women -The Jhansi Regiment. For that time, the act of Indian women donning pants itself was revolutionary.

History never really gave the INA its befitting place. They were never given credence as free fighters, only tried as traitors. The 13,000 odd INA soldiers who were apprehended were never given due recognition for their sacrifices and never remunerations reserved for freedom fighters. Their activities actually roused the nation and stirred political consciousness in British colonies. Their soldiers later initiated left-wing and union movements in Malaya, Singapore and even Indonesia. They began to think of Independence. In Malaya, after Merdeka, their members continued carrying education reforms and women empowerment movements at the local and national levels.

This 5-part miniseries brings its viewers through a nostalgic journey into the past. Using the spruced-up colonial buildings of Singapore, the rubber estates in Malaysia and the jungles of Thailand as backdrops, the director managed to narrate the genesis of INA. Starting with prisoners-of-war of Indian descent serving the British Indian Army, the Japanese riled up patriotism to recruit more volunteers to serve at the Burmese-Indian border in their encounter with the British.

Using characters with names of known figures who had participated in the mission, the storyteller managed to create a love drama of soldiers as they scaled the treacherous terrains of the Arakan and the perilous battles in Manipur.

Janaki is the story refers to Janaki Athi Nahappan who went on to establish Malayan Indian Congress with John Thivy. She continued her social work until her demise in 2014.

Rasammah Naomi Navarednam Rasamma here refers to Mrs FR Bhuphalan, a Malaysian educationist and social activist, the 95-years lady of steel who appears in the media annually during the Merdeka month. The character Lakshmi denotes Dr Lakshmi Swaminathan @ Lakshmi Sahgal @ Captain Lakshmi, who gave up her medical practice in Singapore to join INA in the Azadi movement. She later became a Minister in the defunct Azad Hind Government. After the war, she settled in Kanpur, continued her medical practice, entered politics under the Communist Party banners and passed away at the ripe age of 97 in 2012.

A lovely miniseries that educates the ignoramus on the side of history as narrated by the fallen. Excellent cinematography and prudent use of computer graphic imaging (CGI) to recreate the feel of a real war and fairly credible combat scenes. We are relieved of the typical gravity-defying acrobatic battle encounters typified by Bollywoo