Bose: Dead/Alive Review

Bose: Dead/Alive has been adapted from writer Anuj Dhar's book titled India's Biggest Cover-up. Bose stars the highly talented Rajkummar Rao in the eponymous web series. He teams up with Hansal Mehta.There have been news reports which state that PM Jawaharlal Nehru had his spies go through all the mails of Bose’s house in Calcutta to ascertain whether he was still alive. Another rumor doing the rounds was that Bose was captured by the then USSR.Many attribute India’s freedom to Bose’s revolutionary ways. With the mystery around Netaji’s death still unsolved, any show or movie revolving around his life is bound to garner a lot of attention. ALTBalaji head – Ekta Kapoor, seems to have all the elements in place to guarantee a hit show.

The web series starts off with news of Subhash Chandra Bose’s death. The show goes back & forth between Bose’s death in the year 1945 to his college days. The show mainly revolves around the British trying to find out whether Bose died in an air crash in Japan, or whether he is still alive.

Rajkummar Rao is excellent in his role. His scenes with the British, especially the one where he slaps his professor during an exam gave us goose bumps. Rajkummar gets into the skin of his character. The people in charge of his makeup have done a good job. The script is tight & does not drag.

The show throws light on Netaji’s relationship with his caucasian wife. A amount of research done is commendable. The director has to be patted for giving us a good show & extracting fine performances. The show has an excellent Bengali rock sound track, which will haunt you. I strongly recommend you to view the first six episodes.