Rating- 3.5/ 5

Duration -157 minutes

Director – Madhavan

Producer – Sarita Madhavan, R. Madhavan, Varghese Moolan, Vijay Moolan

Writer – R. Madhavan

Cinematography – Sirsha Ray

Editor – Bijith Bala

Music- Sam C. S.

Starring – R. Madhavan,

Simran, Shahrukh Khan

 Filmography

R. Madhavan

1) Rahna Hai Terre Dil Mein (2001)

2) 3 idiots (2009)

3) Tanu weds Manu (2011)

4) Tanu weds Manu returns (2015)

5) Sala Khadoos (2016)

This film is based on the life of  India’s pioneer rocket scientist Nambi Narayanan and his achievements with display of his mad passion for country’s space mission and unmatched dedication. Came along an accusation that eventually became his life’s biggest personal and professional setback.

Plus Points

1) Madhavan is the soul of the film. He is the writer, producer, director and actor of the film. He has done complete justice to all and has superbly enacted the role of ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan from the age of 27 to 80. He is simply brilliant and has delivered an award winning performance.

Simran is good as his wife. Other supporting actors are just perfect  too in their roles.

Film starts with Nambi Narayanan (R Madhavan) narrating his life story to superstar Shah Rukh Khan. Shahrukh Khan who plays  himself is outstanding. Though he has limited screen time, he leaves a mark especially in the climax. It’s always a delight to see him on the big screen (first appearance since 2018 – film zero). He is a charmer with his elegant classy badshah looks playing a role of an interviewer.

Character of Vikram Sarabhai (Rajit Kapoor) and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has been given due importance.

2) R  Madhavan ‘s direction is superb with hands-on detailing of every frame right from the start. His finishing will keep the audience guessing as to if this film is really his debut as a director. Kudos to the director🙌🏼

3) Madhavan has excelled in all three: story, screenplay and dialogues. Story is fascinating. Screenplay is perfect and dialogues are good.

4) Film editing is sharp , though the pace slows down at certain places. The viewers won’t realise the length of the movie is two and a half hours.

5) The subject matter doesn’t give much scope for music, however only two songs are situational. The rest are passable.

6) Film has excellent production designing. Scenes have been beautifully shot in India, Russia and France. Costumes, background score and all other technical departments of the film are good.

Minus points

1) Film has been shot in Hindi, English and Tamil version simultaneously. The Hindi version has lots of dialogues in English, Tamil, Malayalam, Russian and French with almost no sub-titles, might not go well with the masses, especially Hindi belt audience.

2) Too many scientific jargons in the conversations can be difficult to understand. Also, the subject of the film is dry and not everyone will like such scientific movies.

3) Film is devoid of typical Bollywood masala and has nothing to offer in terms of romance, songs or comedy for selective audience who watch movies for entertainment.

Box office

Film has been released in Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Though the film will get great critical reviews, it may fail to get the desired box office collection in Hindi.

However, film is likely to perform well at the box office at all south territories.