Unique Experiment

How tough is it to humanise science? And make the legends more than mere cardboard cutouts of greatness? Men and women who have good days and bad days, who have lovesand rivalries? Any stereotypes of science being boring or stodgy, and of scientists being the kind who sit around, is smashed with the new SonyLIV series Rocket Boys, with extraordinary performances from Jim Sarbh as Homi J Bhabha and Ishwak Singh (last seen in Paatal Lok, 2020) as Vikram Sarabhai. For Sarbh, the series captures an extraordinary moment in Indian history when two men of privilege decided to use their personal ambition for the greater good. “India was just emerging from colonialism and the resources were limited for what they were trying to do. They couldn’t even make rubber sheets to study cosmic rays,” says Sarbh, adding “these two people could have easily settled down in a foreign country. But Homi chose to leave his Cambridge-educated life and learn about his heritage. He had a sneaking suspicion that the seat of civilisation labelled as Europe wasn’t true.” It wasn’t easy. There was a tremendous amount of preparation. Each day of shoot required four-five days of intense prep, says Sarbh, whose own journey mirrors that of Bhabha. Educated at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, he worked in theatre there for a year before deciding to return home. The role of Bhabha comes once in a lifetime. “Complicated science, lots of Hindi, trying to capture the approach of someone who thinks faster than most people. The idea was to make the science less expositional,” he says. The reason he got most excited to play Bhabha, apart from his immense contribution to science, was that he was so much more—he was a man of the world, a philanthropist, with interests ranging from art to culture, physics to astronomy and molecular biology. He was a violinist, an artist, he kept 1 per cent of the budget of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research for art, for the Gaitondes, the Husains, the Razas. He was a complete man. He acted in plays at Cambridge, was on the rowing team, played cricket as a child. Sarbh read biographies on him, especially Bhabha and his Magnificent Obsessions by Ganeshan Venkataraman; met Mallika Sarabhai, Vikram’s daughter; and studied his friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru, whom he called “Bhai”. Since returning to India in 2012, Sarbh has played a galaxy of characters on stage, but we who haven’t seen much of Mumbai theatre know of him from many dark roles he has played on screen, beginning with his film debut as a demented terrorist in Neerja (2016). He’s been the very queer Malik Kafur in Padmaavat (2018) and the adulterous husband in Made in Heaven (2019). Ishwak Singh is a trained architect from the Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Gurugram, and even practised for some years before deciding to act. Vikram’s union with Mrinalini Swaminathan was the ultimate marriage of the arts and science, so critical for the brave new India. Ishwak followed the biography by Amrita Shah (Vikram Sarabhai: A Life) to map what his onscreen character was like. The union of politics, business (JRD Tata’s character appears often, as does Ambalal Sarabhai), science and the arts make Rocket Boys a unique experiment. What’s more, APJ Abdul Kalam appears too, bringing India’s scientific journey up-to-date. For Sarbh, the role sits as perfectly as Bhabha’s Art Deco desk in his Mumbai home, which he picked up when the Jamshed Bhabha estate was being auctioned—the proceeds of which went to refurbishing the National Centre for the Performing Arts. Great men with even greater ideas.

The Other India

Netflix’s thriller Aranyak (2021) was based in Himachal Pradesh and Disney+Hotstar’s Human was based in Madhya Pradesh. Now, The Great Indian Murder (also on Disney+Hotstar) is based largely in Chhattisgarh. Ashutosh Rana plays an ambitious politician with a wayward son (a breakthrough performance by Jatin Goswami). It is bringing in much-needed new accents and new identities into the Bollywood discourse. Enough of mustard fields and Punjabi dhols.

Scene and Heard

The week belonged to two down-to-earth Punjabis. Kapil Sharma was a hoot in Netflix’s special I’m Not Done Yet and Shehnaaz Gill was equally sterling in the Bigg Boss 15 grand finale with her earthy Punjabi humour.

Ashutosh RanaBollywoodcinemaJim SarbhShehnaaz Gill