‘Rocketry’ co-director explains how Madhavan transformed for his role

The movie ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’ released globally on July 2 and is gaining good reviews as well as positive word of mouth.

The movie is about the life and struggles of the country’s eminent scientist, Dr Nambi Narayanan who was a senior scientist in the ISRO and later was alleged of being involved in espionage.

He fought the case and won it and got acquitted of all charges and even made the police pay him compensation for undue detention in police custody and trauma.

Scripted and directed by actor R. Madhavan, the movie has been co-directed by Prajesh Sen, who had written a book on Nambi Narayanan and made a documentary on the eminent scientist. Sen has also acted in several hit movies in the Malayalam film industry after quitting his job as a journalist in a leading Malayalam newspaper.

“I was in school when I first heard about the ISRO spy scandal and had a feeling that it was true. But later when I grew up, read a lot, and developed my own social outlook, I could understand that he was wronged,” Sen explained, talking about his fascination for the story.

Sen further continued: “Later, I became a professional journalist and tried to get his interview but he didn’t relent. However, after constant perusal, I could get his interview... which was titled ‘Is there an answer to my nine questions’.

“Then I wrote a book on him, ‘Ormakalude Brahmanapatham’, which took five years for me to complete. I travelled to places where he had been to, including Vernon in France, and there I took visuals which later turned out to become my documentary on him, ‘Nambi, the Scientist’.”

Speaking about Madhavan’s casting as Nambi Narayanan Sen said: “Madhavan has transformed into Nambi Narayanan literally and he has totally become the great scientist on screen. All the mannerisms of Nambi Narayanan were properly displayed by Madhavan. We never felt that he was acting but was living the role of Nambi sir.”

Speaking about the lead star’s transformation for the role, Sen further explained: “Madhavan had even bleached his beard and hair to get the grey look and had taken enormous effort and strain to bring the body condition to that of a 27-year-old Nambi Narayanan and later as a 75-year-old. This is the first time that I am seeing an actor taking this much strain and this was a totally dedicated effort on the part of R. Madhavan.”