Rocket Boys Web Review: Do join this Bombay Jim!

Rocket BoysOn SonyLIVDir Abhay PannuRuntime 360 minsCast Jim Sarbh Ishwak SinghRating 45This is a work of staggering ambition and sincerity mainly given that you wonrsquot easily find its immediate equivalent from Indian television Itrsquos a biopic yes make that two in fact But from a field that unlike say sports or crime doesnrsquot instantly lend itself to obvious drama as it were Wersquore talking science of courseMost mainstream showsfilms on that subject yoursquoll notice involve fasttalking blokes throwing up jargon in order to establish minds operating at the speed of thought That is when theyrsquore not blowing up stuff during an experimentWatch VideoThere is only a bit of that here Come to think of it the two specific terms I remember right away from this show mdash predestination and Nash equilibrium mdash belong more to theology and economics respectively Might even be fair to say Rocket Boys belongs more to precious institutionbuilding than science itself To gauge its relevance suffice it to know at least two major research campuses continuing to make Indian science proud are within 30km distance from where Irsquom writing this in Mumbai mdash Bhabha Atomic Research Centre BARC and Tate Institute of Fundamental Research TIFRBoth of which owe their existence to critical theorist Homi J Bhabha This is his story Along with Vikram Sarabhairsquos who went on to set up Indiarsquos space programme best known to all as the Indian Space Research Organisation ISROBhabha and Sarabhai being according to this series ldquomad scientistsrdquo in the inner circle of Jawaharlal Nehru Who in turn was sworn to a modern scientific temperament for an independent republic he founded with committed compatriots after the British leftSo this is in a way also the story of Nehru and modern India And yet at no point do the filmmakers behind this period series with subtle but topclass production design seem too overwhelmed by the task at handTherersquos tonnes of romance here a lot of intrigue elsewhere even some clockticking drama and generally a lightness of touch overall Without once disrespecting the lay viewerrsquos intelligence which is a superpower of its ownWhat does that give the show foremost A surefooted sort of credibility as it charts the story of two seemingly remarkable men over about two and half decades mdash between the beginning of WWII 1940 and the end of the IndoChina war 1962 Which is to say that at least the eventsanecdotescharacters in the script do not look like theyrsquove been altogether researched from WhatsAapp UniversityWhether that be the maverick scientist Bhabha mdash so close to Nehru that he called him Bhai and treated him as an equal mdash bringing over truckloads of coal to a public reception in order to explain the comparative value of uranium to Indiarsquos first PM Playing violin at the party thereafter while Nehru plays the pianoOr for that matter the presence of CIA agentsourcehandler in the top echelon of Indiarsquos atomic energy commission And indeed the cutthroat rivalry between Bhabha and a major scientific institution builder Raza Mehdi Dibyendu Bhattacharya from CalcuttaTo be fair itrsquos not like a member of the audience like me knows any better Though wersquove all seen the image of bullockcart ferrying rocket equipment from back in the day on social media as a glimpse of how ISRO started An essential element of Sarabhairsquos storyWhat we also know is the China War dealt a major blow to India and personally to Nehru mdash the reverses often attributed to poor counsel of the then defence minister VK Krishna Menon Which is something we watch as well While a debate on whether India should arm itself as a nuclear power carries on furiously Bhabha was right at the centre of that debateThese are important events Ideally left to itself Rocket Boys in singular shouldrsquove been the biopic of Bhabha alone mdash a far more compelling biopic Irsquom guessing the material may have been only enough for a feature film and this is a series Also aware given how the first season ends that there will be a secondBy way of work Sarabhai for the most part is primarily involved in textile technology delving in his family business in Ahmedabad The space mission only much later becomes hisA reporter asks a young scientist APJ Abdul Kalam Arjun Radhakrishan given Sarabhairsquos resumeacute in general if this is a case of ldquoJack of all trades Master of nonerdquo Kalam corrects the journalist quoting that full popular phrase which very few do ldquoOften times it is better than being master of nonerdquo LovelyThe extraordinarily subdued serene Ishwak Singh plays Sarabhai Which is such a striking contrast to the passionate livewire lsquoBawarsquo Bhabha whorsquos charmoffensive and allheart all through Surely in love but not emotionally committed to the girl with the ldquoParseeest namerdquo ever Parwana Irani which is Saba Azad who reminds me of Ratna Pathak Shah somewhatThe gentleman playing Bhabha a Bombay institution himself that we are talking about mdash pretty much burning the screen in every scene is actor Jim Sarbh The series has dropped on SonyLIV which delivered some of the finest Indian shows of 2021 without grabbing much notice because of the reach of the platform I guess mdash Tabbar Gullak 2 Potluck even the lesser known Avrodh from 2020This is right up there with their best including Scam 1992 2020 Wersquore way past new year resolutions but I think you must join this Jim for sure

Rocket Boys Web Review: Do join this Bombay Jim!

Rocket Boys
On: SonyLIV
Dir: Abhay Pannu
Runtime: 360 mins
Cast: Jim Sarbh, Ishwak Singh
Rating: 4/5

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Home / Entertainment / Web Series / Article / Rocket Boys Web Review: Do join this Bombay Jim!

Rocket Boys Web Review: Do join this Bombay Jim!

Rocket BoysOn: SonyLIVDir: Abhay PannuRuntime: 360 minsCast: Jim Sarbh, Ishwak SinghRating: 4/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Rocket Boys
On: SonyLIV
Dir: Abhay Pannu
Runtime: 360 mins
Cast: Jim Sarbh, Ishwak Singh
Rating: 4/5