Rocket Boys: From Hating it at First Watch to Beginning to Appreciate it
TL;DR: Short, entertaining watch with good visuals and music. Probably a better experience for those unaware of Vikram Sarabhai and Homi J. Bhabha. My long standing fascination with the zealous Vikram Sarabhai and my expectation of a quiet, thoughtful and sagacious Homi Bhabha found me frowning and uneasy while watching this emotion packed series.
I have a problem with Rocket Boys. The problem is that the story weaves in and out of reality with such ease, that the line where facts end and the fiction sets in is quite blurred. While that is a nod of approval towards the efforts of the creators, I believe that creative liberty is to be exercised with responsibility. Especially when the content is likely to be consumed by young adults.
Imagine watching a series on Indira Gandhi, only to find her character sulky, brooding and weeping all the time, never taking a firm stand for herself. While you may sit through the episodes and appreciate the deftness of the narrative or other aspects of clever filmmaking, a section of your brain would be busy trying to look for some shade of the Iron Lady you’d come expecting.
Similar was my experience watching Homi Bhabha on screen. I must admit, I know nothing about Homi Bhabha’s personality. But from his photographs and video snippets¹ of him addressing the scientific community, I had expected a warm, pleasant and sober person with a thoughtful and crisp tone, much like some of my college professors.
Instead, I find that the ‘Rocket Boys’ team have created this loud, egoistic, brash man who has little regard for the people around him. I dislike him from the first episode. If he were my professor at college, I wouldn’t be comfortable going to his room for a discussion.
Oh, then there’s the whole swaying of the hips as he walks, his frequent kissing on people’s face and the occasional poorly placed allusions towards homosexuality that I wish had been avoided, or handled with more maturity. I wish there were more jokes like the well placed ‘Bhabha scattering’ and less of these poor attempts to get a laugh out of people’s sexual orientation.
I continue to dislike the character. When other characters refer to him as a manipulative person pushing his own agenda and discarding people once he’s exploited them, the audience agrees. Gradually I stop giving a second thought to this self-serving showman of a character. I think the audience will feel no sorrow when he dies. I re-read the Google Arts compilation² on his life afterwards to restore the mental image I had about this great scientist.
Vikram Sarabhai has been portrayed in a more likeable light. His enthusiasm and optimism have been well captured. He demonstrates the kindness, regard for others and humility that I associate with those rare gems of people who are both knowledgeable and humble. I like to believe that a majority of Indian scientists belong to this category, especially those who are middle aged or older. In contrast, our protagonists never seem to grow up.
The female characters are well written. In both Mrinalini Sarabhai and Pipsy, we see the intelligence, warmth and respectful assertiveness we can only wish their partners would reciprocate. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Sir CV Raman have been well portrayed. I liked the characters Mehdi Raza and Vishwesh Mathur; it was a treat to see them evolve over the years. It’s probably because I had no background or preset expectations from their characters that I enjoyed learning more about them as the episodes went by. They appear to be fictional characters. But they were more convincing scientists to me than the Bhabha who says to a young employee who delivers bad news, “You’re fired!”. (Steve Jobs feels)
I loved the title track; I chose to listen to it at the start of each episode than to skip over it. The settings and the props (cars, telephones, clothes, watches, jewellery, offices and homes) are lovely. It’s a well produced series, I only wish the exaggerated encounters and the wackiness of the central characters were a bit toned down.
Favourite Quotes:
1. “We’re scientific citizens of an interdependent world.” Well said, Vikram.
2. “You don’t have to feel guilty about your ambition.”
3. “The country’s best scientific minds should all work together.”
Stuff I learnt:
1. Cloud chamber
2. Kamla Chaudhary: How come I’d heard nothing about her ever before? Suddenly my net learning from this series has taken a jump, after reading up about her extraordinary life. It was while reading up about Kamla Chaudhary through strained eyes that I started to appreciate Rocket Boys. It was a lot easier to sit back and absorb those well-framed scenes, than going through sparse textual documentation scattered across the web. While I will not be recommending this series to my school going cousins (kids, you listen to Mission ISRO), I would say to my fellow busy youth and elders, “it’s certainly worth a watch, you’ll be both entertained, and inspired”.
Reminders to myself:
1. Jasmine flowers in the hair is ❤
“I couldn’t sit there and watch science being made fun of”, says a defensive Vikram to Mrinalini in episode 2, discussing a film they’d just watched. Hurt, Mrinalini responds, “Right, there wasn’t anything other than science in the film, was there? So many artists toiled on it for months… The music was good, the visuals were world class, you couldn’t enjoy a film just for its art?”
Ok, Mrinalini. With your thoughtful dialogues, nuanced expressions and poise, you’re my favourite. I’ll shut up for now and go listen to the title track once again. (References and recommended videos are listed at the end of this post.)
References/Recommended:
[1] Homi Bhabha speaking at Geneva (1955)
[2] Google Arts and Culture: Life and Work of the Great Visionary, Homi J Bhabha
[3] Vikram at IISc
[4] Khushwant Singh about Kamla Chaudhary
[5] IIMA about Kamla Chaudhary
