'Pradhanmantri' : A Series by ABP News

'Pradhanmantri' is a series by ABP News made in 2013. They made it before the election of 2014. That time we missed it, but now we watched it to know more about our country. It is anchored by Shekhar Kapur and some significant parts are enacted by various actors.

The first episode deals with the situation when India got freedom, the amalgamation of the independent princely states with India. How did all these happen? We get an idea about the overall situation of India around April- August '47. The second episode tells us about Junagadh and Hyderabad. The third episode deals with Kashmir. The fourth episode shows us how the state of Andhra was born. And also the formation of Mumbai (which later became Maharashtra and Gujarat).

What a tough situation it was! How difficult to govern such a country which is so varied! And which by that time was not the India we know today. Back then there were also doubt whether some of the princely states would join us or not. Very tough and ambiguous situation, needed critical thinking in each step on the parts of all the statesmen involved in the process. It was great that we got freedom but after that, to maintain the unity of country, to run it smoothly- has been a regular challenge to the Government. This challenge is also a blessing as it enhances the performance of the Government as well as they make the Government come up with new and varied public welfare schemes, so that the masses are benefited.

Gradually we watched the episodes about Hindu Code Bill ( I had no knowledge about it), details of the war with China, the tenure of Jawaharlaal Nehru and after that, Lal Bahadur Shaastri as Prime Minister, after that we witness the time of Indira Gandhi and the 1971 war with Pakistan.

Then came the time of Emergency in the country. After that Moraarji Desai, Operation Blue Star, Rajiv Gandhi, Ayodhya Dispute, Bofors, Mandal Commission, LTTE and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narasimha Rao, Atal Vihari Vajpayee, rule by the UPA Govt- chief incidents from all these eras are covered in the series.

Very informative series, they have also used newspapers of that time and writings of politicians or eminent journalists as source material for the episodes, which are mentioned in the end credit of each episode. In some episodes, politicians and journalists are also seen to narrate or explain a certain topic. The direction is very good, the incidents are shown in such a way that it does not look like dry history or facts, but the audience actually gets involved in the happenings of the state. 

If you want to know and love the country more, to know the situations our great leaders experienced; you need to watch this series :) 

Nice work by ABP News.