Think of a period drama and one expects certain clichés to come into play. A make-believe world, people speaking in an accent from the era gone by, stage and setting that has ‘period’ written all over it and most importantly, certain behavioural aspects that are intended to remind you that this is a story from a different time period. Well, director Abhay Pannu breaks all these clichés with his ambitious web series Rocket Boys which is one of the biggest to be arriving on OTT. Sony LIV has made a name for itself to create very different, and yet entertaining content digitally, and with Emmay Entertainment and Siddharth Roy Kapur coming together, the trend is only continuing.
While we have heard about two of the greatest Indian scientists Dr. Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai (played by Jim Sarbh and Ishwak Singh respectively) in school textbooks, the men who aimed to bring atomic energy and cosmic rays into mainstream space expedition for the country, what Rocket Boys does quite well is to tell the story of the people behind the names. You get to see the two men right from their early days in college to designing India’s atomic plan so closely that there is certain connect which is formed. This is what ends up making this well-shot drama entertaining as you realise that Dr. Bhabha was a prankster at heart and also an ‘angrez sahab’ in his demeanour while Sarabhai was a ‘Gandhiwaadi’ who wanted to uplift the downtrodden. The personal bond that they formed, despite huge difference of opinions (especially professional), was something that kept the two going towards one common vision.
The narrative is punctuated by their respective love stories with Saba Azad playing a lawyer girlfriend of Bhabha and Regina Cassandra as the classical dancer wife of Sarabhai. While this gives depth to the personal lives of the two men, you get a bit impatient as you have an eye on the prize, which is to know more about how the Rocket Boys came together to make India a superpower that catches the attention of even the CIA, courtesy a disgruntled scientist (played effectively by Dibyendu Bhattacharya).
As for the man who rocks the show entirely, it is Sarbh. Being rich, privileged and stylish comes naturally to him and the kind of wit and sharp mind that his character carries makes him a test to watch. As for Singh, he needed to play it all subtle and the natural innocence of his persona helps. While the show as a whole could have been consistently fast-paced with high drama right through the narrative, it’s the peaks that come at regular intervals in this eight-episode series that make Rocket Boys a definite watch.
—Joginder Tuteja
Rocket Boys
Director: Abhay Pannu
Genre: Drama
Platform: Sony LIV
Language: Hindi
Rating: 4/5