‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’ movie review: Madhavan has noble intentions, but the film often clashes

rocketry Does not open inside a science laboratory or aerospace facility. It opens with a neat shot of Nambi Narayanan’s (Madhavan) house in Trivandrum, where everyone in the family is getting ready to attend a family wedding. Meena (Simran) says that it has been many years since they went together for such a function. Everyone’s excited.

After Nambi’s arrest, things do not turn out as expected. But why would the police be behind an ISRO scientist, who has contributed a lot to the country’s science and technology?

rocketry is the story of Nambi NarayananHis illustrious career as a scientist at ISRO and how he was later treated when he was falsely accused of espionage. madhavan It deserves praise for choosing a subject that not many people know about, and more importantly, it hasn’t been diluted by adding ‘filmy’ elements to it.

But only with good intentions does not make a big film. Biopics are relatively easy to crack compared to fictional subjects, and it is to Madhavan’s benefit – this is his directorial debut – that he has rich material in front of him. It was important to choose the main events in Nambi’s dramatic life, and Madhavan has chosen the best. But translated into a movie, it still looks like a missile has gone astray.

The first half feels like an extended science class, with tons of jargon thrown in that not many people can relate to. In these parts, the film has little flavor, but stands out in the form of scenes documenting Nambi’s triumphs in the scientific world. There are several scenes here which are the cinematic equivalent of saying ‘Nambi is a genius’ and nothing more. Further compounding the problem is the fact that the subject required several foreign actors (Nambi studied at Princeton), most of whom were weak in performance and dialogue delivery. The Tamil version of the film, in fact, had unintentionally funny dialogues that were badly clipped.

It’s in the second half that rocketry Feels more like a movie, like a missile suddenly galvanized into action. Dialogues become sharp. There is actor Madhavan for Madhavan’s average directing skills, who come to life in the captivating stretches of Nambi’s old days. The actor has included some of these scenes especially in the scenes that follow his custodial torture. My favorite is a sequence of an officer offering him tea… and it’s Later He has been traumatized through no fault of his. In this scene Madhavan’s hands tremble, fingers tremble and lips tremble. It completely envelops a battered man. Kartik Kumar as a CBI officer, Simran as Nambi’s wife, who goes through a lot in this turbulent journey Surya In a cameo appearance as an interviewer.

The film is also about choices, and one really wishes he had explored it in more detail. There is believed to be a poignant scene in which Nambi has to choose between a prestigious, well-paid job abroad and an average paying job in India. What could have ended as a scene, which dissolves into a joke that one of the characters harmlessly breaks up. Similarly, Nambi has to make a choice in relation to one of the key members of his team in another situation, but the events that follow do not carry emotional weight. Sam CS’ music and Sirsha Ray’s cinematography keep us invested during that time.

the story of rocketry Undoubtedly, there is something the audience has to convey. But, behind that idea lies a film that only adds up in parts and is awkward at times. In the film, a character remarks that scientists are strange people. Perhaps rocketry It is a strange film that oscillates between truth and emotion without making a separate identity.