In one moment, you are enjoying light banter with your loved ones, and in the very next, you are arrested and slapped with the label of a spy.

Nambi Narayanan, director of the cryogenic project at ISRO, went through hell, after he was arrested in 1994 for being allegedly embroiled with a Maldivian woman and selling secrets of ISRO to Pakistan. What followed was years of character assassination and trauma. That he was also ISRO’s celebrated maverick scientist who led a team to Vernon, France, for three years, only to return and invent the Vikas engine that paved the way for the era of PSLV rockets, was conveniently sidelined.

“His story was like a James Bond movie,” says R Madhavan, of what inspired him to write, act in and direct Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, a film on the scientist that released on July 1. The actor, whom we meet over a video call, is dressed in a bright red hoodie and sporting an unshaven look—a stark difference from his near-perfect avatar in the film to resemble Nambi, whose character evolves from an ambitious and bright 27-year-old to a disillusioned 74-year-old.

“When I first narrowed down on this story, I thought it would be good fun to do; the fact that he was innocent was a cliffhanger for me. But when I met him, it was like [as if] somebody had hit me with a sledgehammer. From his demeanor… the way he was speaking, [I realized] he wasn’t just an ordinary scientist. It was only when he started talking about his achievements in life apart from the case, what I was missing stood out and loomed up like a giant,” says Madhavan.

“Here we have a celebrated scientist who made the Vikas engine, but all that Google throws up is the label of a spy. It wasn’t picking up on the Vikas engine or the meritorious things he had done,” says Madhavan, adding that Nambi’s story was already written. “I just had to focus on which part of the story I wanted to tell.”

Madhavan’s directorial debut unveils the genius of Nambi, beginning with his friendship with mentor Vikram Sarabhai at ISRO to his scholarly pursuit at Princeton and later, as the main man heading a team of 52 scientists to Vernon, France, to help develop the Viking-3 rocket engine.

The film wears a cloak of honest rawness that makes us laugh out loud at light-hearted moments, and cry at poignant turns. The personal trauma that the Narayanan family faced has been portrayed with depth. In one scene, Nambi’s distress to hail an auto in pouring rain to take his ill wife home is so real, the frustration is palpable. “Nobody wants to take up a directorial venture which is so mammoth in its philosophy. Critics said that I could have given it to a better director, but I couldn’t find someone who understood how ISRO works and was well-versed with the cryogenic engine, I just couldn’t. I didn’t have the budgets either,” he says, earnestly.

Then there was the challenge of making a film in three languages—Hindi, English and Tamil. “I knew all three, so I jumped in.”

Madhavan, himself, has a BSc degree in Electronics, and has nurtured a deep interest in aeronautics. He was recognised as a leading NCC cadet, which landed him the opportunity to receive training with the British Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. He considered joining the forces, but missed the age cut-off by six months. “My entire life prepared me for this moment, truth be told,” he says.

To ensure his acting didn’t interfere with his direction, he saw that the team left the least amount of creativity for the set. “My characters were well defined, we had done the workshops and rehearsals, so we had minimum improvising liberties on the set. I was delivering what I had already set. I had the entire story and script in my head.”

It was imperative, Madhavan feels, to completely imbibe Nambi. “I was just spending time with him, observing him. He gave me one advice: select the right people and let them do their job. Make sure I had given them my vision, and just leave them alone. For every aspect of the film, from filmography to music, I gave them a vision of where I wanted to go, and then gave them complete freedom. That is exactly how he built the Vikas engine,” he adds.

The rest of the cast fit their roles with ease. Param, a fictional character played by Rajeev Ravindranathan, is a scientist and friend who stands by Nambi through his ups and downs. Another character that shines is Unni, played by Sam Mohan, who has the canvas to despise Nambi for a phase in his life, but becomes his support system post the arrest. “I didn’t want anyone to come on set and try to play an astro-scientist or make the effort to convince the audience. I am very proud of the intricacies of what we achieved,” says Madhavan.

The story is held together in the form of an interview conducted by Shah Rukh Khan; the Tamil version has Suriya in the role.

Playing his real-life self of a Bollywood star helps present the story in a digestible format. The charmer offers a platform for Nambi’s storytelling. The dialogues have a lot of scientific terms thrown in, but without the need to understand what specific impulse means to an engine, we are able to enjoy the excitement of an experiment. Madhavan, admits, he didn’t want to dumb it down. “It is really a conversation between scientists and geniuses,” he tells us, signing off, “Even if I don’t make as much money as other actors, I will never make a movie that will undermine my audience.”

In 1998, the Supreme Court acquitted Nambi Narayanan in the case and awarded him a compensation of Rs 1 lakh. In 1999, Narayanan claimed compensation from the state for agony under the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). An interim compensation of Rs. 10 lakh was awarded. The SC awarded him a compensation of R50 lakh in 2018. In 2019, Nambi Narayanan was awarded the third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to India’s space research at the age of 80. In 2020, he was awarded an added compensation of Rs 1.3 crore.

Madhavan’s character evolves from an ambitious and bright 27-year-old to a disillusioned 74-year-old

With Nambi Narayanan (white shirt) on the set of Rocketry: The Nambi Effect