Bose: Dead/Alive

SHUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE is one of the greatest freedom fighters that we had.The story is presented in an interesting manner to say the least but i must warn you that there's no guarantee about accurate the story is and it is written in the disclaimer of the show as well.Rajkumar Rao portrays the role of netaji beautifully as he not only shows his aggressive side but also uses his intelligence in fooling the British raj on multiple occasions.It's worth your time people.

The dawn of web-series in India isn't good if compared to its international peers and much of it is to be blamed to its unavoidable Bollywood influence! This author have had the privilege of reading textual sources on the enigmatic freedom leader, although he hasn't read the book by Anuj Dhar on which the series has based itself. Portraying real life characters on screen (big or otherwise) is always challenging. But in this case, there are ample video & audio recordings of Netaji that one can refer to. Besides a close study of his life clearly shows he wasn't brash or arrogant but smart, tactical, stubborn but gentlemanly and suave. Unfortunately, the Netaji we see here isn't that polished. Rao fumbles in his English dialogues (in contrast, Netaji had lived and studied in Cambridge, has been a good student throughout his life. He knew many other non-Indian languages fluently.) Rao fails to bring out the soft-demure side to Netaji which a good reading on Netaji can be felt by anybody. Also, and probably most importantly, Rao looks very unlike Netaji. Rao naturally is good with Hindi dialogues but the Bengali is horrendous, to say the least. Thankfully, Rao has been given few of them. There are many inaccuracies as far as portrayal of the Bose family and other historical details, but since before every episode the makers disclaim any similarity with real person, this author has just let this major drawback pass. However, the supporting ensemble shines, led by the actor playing Darbari Lal. Thumbs up to the production design team & cinematography team. The real winners in this series are the editor and the music duo of Mr. G and Neel Adhikari. The short duration made more compact by the editor and every moment gets embedded and underscored by the music. Watch it for anything but Rao or better still catch a rerun of Bose: the Forgotten Hero, the movie by Shyam Benegal. It may be argued that the characters are not well rounded and very unidimensional and therefore rendered almost caricaturish, which goes on to show the urgent need of quality writers. The American entertainment industry has thrived on creative writers (show-runners), and good cinema/TV series can not be pulled off by mere star power.

Watching Bose: Dead or Alive is somewhat pointless because you are hoping for a conspiracy supported by some muddled facts or a startling revelation of the cover-up or just about some fictional story that you missed in the books. Instead, what you get is a rundown of what actually happened during India's fight for freedom and how Bose led a parallel army against the Raj. No doubt about the TV show's craft and the superior production design, supported by a talented cast and good writing. I even became an instant fan of the fast-paced title song with Bengali and English lyrics. But, none of these factors saves Bose: Dead or Alive from revealing its hollow story (and slightly off direction) that depends on few slides of text at the end to tell us about the mystery of Bose's disappearance in 1946. Running close to 3 hours, it is a pleasant exercise at what conspired in India and around the world and how Bose struggled to try and achieve freedom and not wait like his counterparts. Lead man Rajkummar Rao is terrific but you need to have some idea about Bose's character and behavior to fully appreciate the portrayal. Naveen Kasturia is another chap who does a brilliant job along with the foreign actors, most notably Edward Sonnenblick. Overall, this is a cool show for anyone who's interested in India's history and politics. But, if I had to gauge its effectiveness and understand its relation with the title, Bose: Dead or Alive is an ambitiously mediocre drama that has nothing new to offer. TN.

The plot, summing up straight is about Bose's life, moreover Bose's secret life, about how he used to go around confusing his opponents and in the end almost always getting things the way he planned. For those who don't know, the death of this man is a topic debated on India for several decades, many people don't believe that he died on the plane crash, leaving India with a topic that conspiracy theorists would grasp upon quickly, making it something which people yet debate upon. Coming to the acting, I felt it was a little disappointing to see Rajkummar Rao's take on it, though apt, it's not like Bose never smiled. Though he did speak slowly, but it wasn't quite the way Bose actually did, moreover him quickly switching to Bengali and then to Hindi randomly wasn't quite as appealing as they tried to make it. Here, Naveen Kasturia plays the role of Darbari Lal, an Indian police officer working directly under the British officers. He maintains respect for Bose and is annoyed by him at the same time while he's doing his duty of trying to track Bose down. Seems to be a simple character. Isn't. Quite a complicated, yet funny character. No one but Kasturia could have bettered it, he really proves his skills here, we've not seen him do such kinds of role before, and it actually took me a while to figure out that his character was really being played by him. Brilliant, brilliant acting by Naveen Kasturia. Once again proving his worth and I might even go about saying that I already find him one of the best actors in the film industry. The story makes some bold statements on Congress and Gandhi's ideologies, though I personally felt they were logical, it was something that I feel could have offended a certain section. The plot, though was pretty interesting in general and sure kept you hooked up till the very end. However, some sections were just plain unrealistic. The scripting and direction were okay, not the best that I've ever seen, but certainly one of the best I've seen from India. The soundtracks seemed to come out of nowhere and they really seemed elongated and just sometimes... was out of tone really. In my opinion the soundtracks were the worst part. Ratings: Acting: 9/10 Plot: 8/10 Direction: 7/10 Soundtrack: 4/10 Summary: Good, but not as great as reviewers have been portraying it. Disclaimer: These are all personal opinions.

The TV show is really good, all the way through watching experience is good. Really enjoyed the history that is covered. Raj Kumar acting is really good, in fact, all the actors did really well. But how much factual and correctness is there, that can only be known with enough knowledge on this topic.

This series leads me to write my first review on IMDb. Amazing acting by Rajkumar Rao as usual. Story and screenplay is amazing. Salute to Balaji films for bringing such controversial issue in well manner. Must see for all Indian. Create interest in such a way that you will complete all episodes in one go.

Rajkumar Rao proves his mettle once again! Do not miss this one! Acting is really good for most part of it. The sets look authentic. Music is top notch! Highly recommend it. P.S. To all the critiques(Especially the one guy who talked about people who liked it being high), you are only supposed express your opinions about the show, not the viewers.No reason to judge people who like it. If your entire life is predicated on looking down upon others based on their choice of movies/TV series, maybe you need to grow up and comprehend the concept of 'Different taste-buds'. Also, you lead a sorry life!

Firstly, I specifically took my time and made an account on IMDb to review this. So you can understand this is 'that' bad. People rating it 10 or 9s are definitely on meth or are from Balaji's PR team. The beginning was very poor, with nothing feeling even a little authentic. Everything looks likes a desperate childish attempt. The real story was great and they could've done this in million different ways but, sadly, this is the worst outcome that anyone can expect. Even RajKumar Rao couldn't help to make this watchable. The only good thing is the title song. Not the performance, not the casting, not the direction, not the set, not the locations, not the props, literally nothing in it was good. It's 3am and I'm feeling sorry for myself to have wasted my time and sleep for this. I'll try to write in points- 1. No one's performance can be called even average, only Officer Stanley was good. Dialogue delivery, facial expressions are just pathetic. 2. They completely failed to portray Neta Ji's bold personality. All characters are underdeveloped. 3. They talk about Neta ji's army, how he got so many people standing with him. But you never see him addressing a mob, only group of 5- 6 guys which look like thugs. 4. Netaji went to Burma, Afghanistan, Russia, Japan, Germany in it, but it seems they have shooted the whole series in a single set. 5. The appearance and make-up is just like the daily soaps where they even sleep wearing heavy jewelries and those heavy sarees. Neta Ji's hair looks like someone put a razor on his head while he was sleeping. He never looks like an old man but clearly a young 20s guy wearing body suits to show the extra weight. People were dying of hunger and poverty and all the atrocities of British govt. but they all had time to clean wash their clothes and then well iron them. In the complete 9 episode series I didn't saw a single person who really appears to be poor. Hell Gandhi Ji took some time to clean shave his hairs on legs, so that don't look messy. There are a lot of other bad things to say, and not a single positive. So I'm just gonna advise you to not waste your time on it. You are bored, go watch YouTube trending, even that would be much much better than this.