Rocketry Movie Review: R. Madhavan does not do his projects on a whim, he chooses them carefully and takes his time and all that shows in the execution or the final product we see on Silver Screen. We’ve always seen Maddy as an actor in which he has hardly ever disappointed but now we have a film that is much-awaited for quite some reasons, other than Maddy and the man of the hour is “Rocketry: The Nambi Effect”.
Rocketry: The Nambi Effect is a biographical drama film based on the life of Indian Space Research Organization Rocket Scientist Mr. Nambi Narayanan who was falsely accused of espionage, specifically selling ISRO Rocket secrets and designs to Pakistan. Now, the film has shown us not just the scandal that made the man but his whole life, his sacrifices, and his efforts in making India stand up on its feet when it comes to space expeditions on the world level.
Review
With a runtime of almost 150 minutes, the film is long but Maddy has tried to include all the elements of Nambi Narayanan’s life and the film is not boring. One might think the film might get boring in between and there are moments too, in the film when they’re practically being nerds and talking space terms like engine type and whatnot, those scenes are subjective and apart from that, everything is easy to understand. The film is not hard to understand and the flow of the film is good too. The film works in different ways, showing major parts of Nambi Narayanan’s life.
The film starts off with an interview about Nambi Narayanan that no one other than SRK is doing himself and everyone else is just being ignorant of the scientist and badmouthing him for ruining his weekend. Nambi Narayanan starts off by talking about his mentor “Vikram A Sarabhai” and how he thought Nambi was reckless and ambitious which he loved about him. Nambi then gets accepted to Princeton University for studying Rocket Science but in Solid Fuels which Nambi did not want and wanted to shift to Liquid Fuels and there he starts blowing off people’s minds and ends up undergoing a thesis from a professor who wasn’t teaching any students by helping his bedridden wife and doing daily chores.
Just from the short list of the events and that, not all of them are mentioned you can imagine the research and time taken just to create a script for the film must have been. The effort to go to such lengths for a script is our debutant that has done that. R. Madhavan is the scriptwriter, producer, director, dialogue writer, and finally, the lead actor. Maddy has immersed himself into this story so much and the outcome is very satisfying.
Rocketry was simultaneously shot in 3 languages, English, Hindi & Tamil so if you’re watching in Hindi you will know from the lip movement of the actors that it’s not dubbed. The Malayalam actors in the film have spoken in Hindi!
Acting
Maddy has never disappointed and he still doesn’t. Looking at his body transformations just to imitate the body type of Mr. Nambi Narayanan, he has brought his A-GAME. Simran who played his wife Meena is brilliant and one scene might get off like a silent killer and hit you in the head. The rest of the cast does their job as asked by the script. The leads are perfect and the casting for the roles is satisfying to watch.
Music
Throughout the whole film, it does not have one song!! In the end, you can hear one song but in the background. The music for the film is very interesting to see because the songs have been produced for 6, yes you heard it right for 6 freaking languages and the musicians are also different.
Two songs were composed by American Country musicians Billy Dawson and Nate Cornell. Keeping the instrumental covers aside, there are two songs with a total of 7 minutes and 50 seconds and that’s it. They have been sung in 6 languages, with the Tamil Lyrics written by Mr. Nambi Narayanan himself.
Cinematography
The film, in terms of camera work, is not perfect but it’s not under the threshold too, it’s pretty but not amazingly astonishing and applauding. Maddy tries to get every shot he can beautifully but there’s a little bit yeah there are some scenes that might have been prettier. Other than that, the scenes shot in foreign countries are beautiful and the rocket scenes could have been improved but it’s okay.
Overall
Rocketry: The Nambi Effect is an overall very good film and deserves its viewership since it’s not a masala film nor does it show a very coochie-coo romance in it. It is based on real events and people need to be aware of the history.
Not everything good happens in society and not everything bad is bloody, sometimes a man is wrongfully accused of something and the people’s court puts them on trial more than the judicial court does. Watch this film to be aware and understand the man who is one of the many people responsible for India’s reputation in Space Research in the world right now.
We give Rocketry: The Nambi Effect 3.5/5 Stars.
This was our Rocketry Movie Review, what is your take on this? Please let us know in the comments.