Actually, the espionage case and the struggle of Nambi Narayanan begins from 1994. It covers about a couple of decades, with immense legal fight for justice amidst the tumults of dirty politics and the yellow media. Of course, the end result of Nambi Narayanan's lengthy fight for justice is well known to everyone. At the end, Mr. Nambi gets justice from the Supreme Court of India, with a huge compensation, and that is what actually happened. However, prior to 1994, there was yet another series of exciting events and dramatic activities in the life of Nambi, which eventually could have made him fall into the trap of the fake case as a result of butterfly effects or whatever! Here, R Madhavan chose to focus on 'That Nambi', who had a brilliant and admiring career as a scientist in his golden age. Nambi Narayanan, the blue eyed boy of Vikram Sarabhai, who apparently had a contemporary career with legends like APJ Abdul Kalam, Prof Yashpal etc.. The movie includes his journey as a struggling student at the Princeton University and a scientist with the ISRO, developing the VIKAS Engine and the adventurous journey in bringing the machinery from the USSR. The movie unfurls a bit deeper into the scientific and technological aspects of Rocketry and cryogenics, which can hardly be seen discussed in any Indian movies. Even the words like 'NASA', 'Rocketry', "ISRO'', "Satellite", "cryogenics" etc seems to be appearing in an Indian movie for the first time, probably after Ashutosh Gowariker's 'Swades' (2004). This itself shows how distant, the popular Indian media is, from such topics.
Glad to see an Indian movie showing scientists as patriots, giving yet another sense of patriotism apart from being loud like 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' slogans. Obviously, Rocketry, like any other biopic, tells the story of an unsung hero. What makes it different from the others is nothing but who the 'hero' is. The hero is neither an actor, nor a politician. The hero is neither a soldier, nor a sportsperson. The hero is neither a freedom fighter, nor a musician! The hero is an engineer, a scientist, whose life in no way can be dramatized easily on usual aspects. R Madhavan uses drama, just as a method of storytelling with apparently no songs, no fights and no masala added! Cinematographer Ravi K Chandran has done a brilliant job in visualizing 'Rocketry' which contains a different set of visuals compared to usual commercial cinema. Sam CS did well with the BGMs to make it more exciting. Viewers, would enjoy it very much if they have a bit of scientific temperament and an understanding of actual events as pre-requisites.
What we see in popular media is nothing but their own versions of Nambi Narayanan. What we see in the movie is from Nambi's perspective, where the media, politics and all the dirty games played behind him, takes a back seat in the film as well. The life of Nambi as a scientist, and the way his family dealt the situation is what the movie puts forth, which gives a different picture of the events altogether, from an 'inside out' perspective. In Nambi Narayanan's perspective, probably the yellow media and politics have got no much role to play compared to science! This can also be considered as a reverse example to emphasis the phrase: 'even if you ignore politics, politics will never ignore you', and politics affects you and here we see, 'the Nambi effect being affected by politics', thereby slowing down the Indian rocket science!
Suriya / Shah Rukh Khan played a worthy cameo which personifies the entire nation. R Madhavan, as a director, did a brilliant job. In the movie, all we see is Nambi and not Madhavan. The reel hero Madhavan gets replaced by the real life hero- Nambi Narayanan and as a director, Madhavan succeeded in executing it brilliantly. Packed with mixed emotions and goosebumps, people forgets Madhavan, and the cameos and only Nambi Nrayanan is left to be placed within the minds of audience and there, it becomes a genuine tribute to the real Nambi Narayanan! Hats off to the entire crew!
© Rahul Sankalpa
