Passion project Nikhil Advani; a scene from Freedom at Midnight
On a hot morning in April, filmmaker Nikhil Advani looks into a vintage wooden mirror as he gets his hair and beard trimmed in the middle of the road. The said road is part of an impressive set mounted for Advani’s passion project, Freedomkey events in India’s tumultuous battle for independence beginning with Direct Action Day in 1946 and culminating with Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. It’s 7.30 in the morning, but Advani is wide awake as he gives a tour of the sets, suitably sooty to show the aftermath of the Partition riots. “With just one line [drawn on the map], 20 million people were uprooted and moved across borders. It is insane…” says Advani.