Classy, educative, engaging and such a feel-good watch. ‘Rocket Boys’ based on the life of Dr. Homi Bhabha and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai is produced superiorly with stunning details making it an international level web-series!

Rocket Boys, starring Jim Sarbh and Ishwak Singh is the kind of web-series that should be actually binged and deserve all the popularity. The story of two ‘mad-scientists’, Dr. Homi J. Bhabha and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai is what every Indian should know more than the extent of what was taught in history books. And now, thankfully, owing to heaving consumption and appreciation of great content, this series could come to the forefront.

A bio-series inspired by the lives of Dr. Homi Bhabha and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, is a slow-burn engager. It showcases their lives parallelly when they intersected in the India of 1940s. The series covers 25 years of their life until 1965. It covers key events and highlights from these two decades blended with a take on their love and personal lives. 80% of the series is inspired and based on true events while creative liberties and fictionalization has been done to some extent. It brilliantly pictures the lives of these ‘mad-scientists’, the passion and madness with which they work and this accurately portrays how scientists and researchers everywhere in the world universally are. Apart from the life of these two, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam also enters the plot in the last few episodes for a bit. Not only the lives of these scientists, the series also focuses a lot on the backdrop of the pre-independence India in which the film is set and encapsulates the freedom struggle process in the plot. It does that so well too that you’ll have a spark of patriotism ignited!

The screenplay is penned in a very neat and structured manner letting each event take its time and space. The story brews slowly but will surely get your grip 3rd episode onwards. The dialogues too are so sound and well written too. It will be hard to believe that it is the debut of the writer-director Abhay Pannu who has been previously associated as an Assistant Director in various projects. Hats off to him!

The best thing about the series lies in its attention to detail, superior production design and a very technically sound execution of all scenes. The colour-palette, cars, cameras, universities, classrooms, libraries, homes will literally transport you to the India of 1940s. The colour palette is mostly kept dusky on purpose and that builds the atmosphere so well. The costume, the art and props everything has been pulled off with accuracy and is just so great to watch. The telephones to the blackboard to the books, newspapers and…everything! The title track and BGM by Achint who also composed for Scam 1992, is again very pulsating and addictive. It creates the needed tension and ambience. 

The best is not yet done. The performances are beyond contemplation. There could have been no better and accurate casting than Jim Sarbh and Ishwak Singh for their respective roles. Not only do they look their parts but also are able to pull the performance off. There isn’t a single minute that they look caricatured or over-doing things. They are under their character’s skin and with class. Jim Sarbh pulls off being whimsical, goofy, angry and the ‘mad scientist’ Dr. Bhabha while Ishwak Singh is able to be extremely composed, objective and the jack of all trades Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. Their counterparts- Mrinalini Sarabhai, the wife of Dr. Sarabhai played by Regina Cassandra and Parvana Irani played by Saba Azad, the love interest of Dr. Bhabha, perform exceedingly well as well. The supporting actors including Rajit Kapoor who plays Pt. Nehru and Dibyendu Bhattacharya who plays Raza Mehdi do their part well. The only mis-fit here, in my opinion was the casting of Arjun Radhakrishan as Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Dr. Kalam has been fairly short in height and didn’t speak Hindi that well. Creative liberties have been taken in this representation.

This series is a must-watch as it pays a very necessary adieu to the contributions of the Great Scientists of our Nation and tell us a story that unfortunately, history books have told us very little about. This series is an attempt to take people beyond and deep. Educative, engaging, entertaining and an absolute fine piece of art in terms of acting, cinematography, art and story-telling, Rocket Boys should be in the list of series you have to watch at all costs. India has another great and pathbreaking web-series coming from the basket of SonyLiv after Scam 1992. Kudos to the team!

Rocket Boys is a web-series with 8 episodes averaging 40 minutes each and is produced by Roy Kapur Films and Emmay Entertainment. It is streaming on SonyLiv. You can watch the trailer here.