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Why You Should Watch Madhavan's 'Rocketry: The Nambi Effect'
Rocketry: Nambi Effect
Rocketry is based on the autobiographical book by Nambi Narayanan called Ready To Fire (Bloomsbury).
The first half: The movie starts with a Venkatesa Suprabhatham — the hallmark of most middle-class religious Hindu households of southern India — as is heard in the house of Narayanan.
It shows a human story of scientific institution-building in the first 40 years of the independent Republic of India.
A young and determined Narayanan learning without getting deviated by any temptations, his bonding with the family, and his guru bhakti towards Vikram Sarabhai are depicted.
The second half: It shows the false case, the torture, the way he came out of it, and finally when he gets justice.
It brings out the events in perspective with what was happening in the emerging unipolar world with techno-apartheid expanding into a crumbling USSR.
The movie is set through flashbacks of Madhavan as the old Narayanan, in a TV interview, getting interviewed by a popular actor.
Responding to critics: Hindu symbols shown in the movie are neither loud nor forcibly integrated.
Narayanan is a religious person and India is a deeply religious society. So, it is natural that religion surfaces in the lives of individuals in their moments of pressure.
To read into that any communal toxicity is more a commentary on the perversion of those who make such a commentary than on the movie.
India’s space achievements today are owed to Narayanan on two vital counts: one for his visionary study of liquid fuels and another for standing against torture and refusing to give in.
Narayanan gives credit to his fainting under torture for not implicating the top brass of ISRO in the well-fabricated scandal.
Special applause: The director has to be congratulated for creating nail-biting suspense when what would be the Vikas engine is getting tested in the French space research facility.
Madhavan has accomplished the tough job of taking a technical, scientific thing and communicating it interestingly to movie viewers.
In the interview sequence, one can see the real Narayanan, not Madhavan, sitting there. This gives viewers an impactful experience.
Why you should watch: Every Indian parent should take their children to this movie and they will understand what patriotism really is.
To understand how ruthless intelligence agencies can be in stopping developing countries from becoming equal partners in space technology.
It is an apology from the heart of the people of India to Narayanan for the crimes committed against him by a few heartless men using the state machinery.
