Movie Review: Rocketry – The Nambi Effect

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Star Cast: R. Madhavan, Simran, Rajit Kapur

Director: R. Madhavan

The fact that R. Madhavan is headlining this movie like no one’s business by writing the screenplay, dialogue, directing, and acting in it, is to be celebrated and appreciated. The herculean task in this one is not just writing a story and translating it on the big screen, it is to justify a life that still exists and give him the homage that the country failed to for years and only gave him a lot of injustice.

So what does Rocketry: The Nambi Effect exactly do? Does it take the Shakuntala Devi route or are we going the Theory Of Everything way? None, we are going the Maddy way. The actor has marinated himself so much in this source material that he almost writes a love letter to Narayanan. But he makes sure it isn’t a flowery or whitewashing move. For a first-timer, Maddy ends up leaving rough edges and ones that are important.

Nambi Narayanan led a life that was meant to be a story. Of course, there must be changes and amends to the chronology of things, but even the standalone episodes of his career and personal journey are so interesting and they deserved to be told. So the task at the hands of makers is to tell this story in a way that it doesn’t end up looking like another biopic taking the same route.

Madhavan begins this story from the worst day of his life, when he was arrested on false grounds. The story in the movie travels almost through decades starting from the year 1969 to 2020 when he was finally served proper justice. Between this, there is science, friendships, family, trauma, life, and its difficulties. Madhavan makes sure you feel it all.

R. Madhavan has gone beyond his limit to shape Rocketry and there is no way he could have let anything go wrong from at least his end. The actor has to age back and forth and he manages to make us believe and invest through all of it. Even with the heavy prosthetics in a part, you can see him put those efforts. It’s one hell of a Maddy show and he deserves to be seen.

Simran plays Nambi Narayanan’s wife Meena. The actor is all forms of amazing for the lack of a word. In the most traumatic of the situations where Nambi is still composed, she makes you feel the height of pain the family has gone through. What starts like a stereotypical character gets so nuanced after a point. Another nod to the good writing.

Rest everyone does their jobs earnestly and creates a world that is lived in and authentic. There are a lot of good actors involved for parts that are almost special appearances but crucial. You will know. Rajit Kapur is beyond reviews for such parts now.

Rocketry is a movie that must be celebrated because an artist has tried to come out of his comfort zone and tell a story not many could dare. It is about a man who gave this country big achievements but was compensated with brutality. It took almost two decades for the government to give a veteran scientist a clean chit in a case he was never guilty of. It is a story that must be told and heard!