The Forgotten Army - Azaadi ke liye

Why worked:

• the production team; the series is beautifully shot, edited, sound and video mixing is fine. What stays out is the action team, the stunts, visual effects and overall war sequences. It's commendable and astonishing. The team were able to build a huge set design because of the adequate budget making the viewer experience more realistic.The series is based on a real story which makes it an especial series. Overall, it is an enjoyable watch especially the action scenes.

What did not work:

• love story; the love story somehow distracted the series instead of enhancing it. The movie which should have been focused on the agenda of the movie seem busy in trying to build a story out of the context, which would have been better if not highly valued in the narrative overall. Also, the love story failed to create the intimacy and relatability.
• glorified scenes: some scenes were overly dramatized and gloried for the sake of making it colorful. Many scenes with the themes of nationality and valor could have been cut down to get a crisp narrative.
• plot holes and flaws; what failed miserably is the screenplay of the series. Although they had a huge budget and great team, the screenplay somehow failed to connect with the viewers making it a mundane and cliche war movie with added flavor of romance and predictability. I think many would have not wanted the over glamorous present story, the chase scenes or the love story or the ending of the main character. I would say it's a weak writing and the narrative could have been made better with giving attention to the flow, the intend and the overall message of the movie, rather than gloried love story added on the real story. It's a missed opportunity, which could have been better.

Final verdict: not recommended if you have something better to do. Watch it for set design and action sequences, it's a treat.

None of us are going to find this in our school history books. It happened the exact way shown here even more. But unfortunately the credit for fight for freedom is limited to couple of people in India. They are the true unsung heroes of the free India we breath in now.

The content of the mini series could be more focused on fact rather than the dramatisation. With the factual history available in the public domain, the legacy of INA can be made into seasons together, let aside a 5 episode mini series. The storyline and cinematography could be better, even as compared to current Indian productions. Overall, 7 starts would do good. However, 10 stars is for the effort for bringing out such a sensitive and important part of the forgotten history.

I only judge an art by seeing what was the aim of its makers and did the art achieved that goal. And if the goal was to aware the audience about the INA's effort from singapore. That, indeed is achieved, at least to me. And so, in my opinion, this series is a super success. It not only achieves it's patriotic mission with it's superb title song and steller performances (which made me cry each and every time), but also gives me a very good time. There's honesty in it's humour, necessary passion in patriotism, and purity in love and honour. Nothing felt too fictitious, at the same time, kept everything a little dramatic, to not make it boring. Though some moments may be debatable as to being authentic or not, but the discussion is of no importance to either me or any fine layman. Those discussions are only important to cinephiles, which is a fun thing nonetheless. I have had a very good time watching the whole season, one episode a day. Binging wasn't an option, and thankfully not, otherwise I wouldn't have enough tears for the whole series in one sitting. This series is definitely worth a try to every prime user. It's a good detour from our daily soaps. But remember, do not binge. It's not good for your health. (Are personal disclaimers like this, a no no in a review?) Happy watching!

I liked the series in a way that it was really informative and gave us an insight about INA. But the execution was more like a bollywood movie. Kabir Khan should have kept it more grounded. The love story has been given a lot of emphasis, specially in the last episode.