So finally managed to see the 8 episodes of Rocket Boys on Sony Liv OTT platform (60% User Experience quality as compared to Netflix or Amazon Prime). I was delighted with the attempt of the endeavour to bring an esoteric part of our history of scientific research to the masses. This was one of the more commendable parts of this attempt.
This piece is NOT a review but I am trying to provide some additional information on the scene and situation around those times. People who have seen Rocket Boys may like to read some of this additional information and perhaps some of my rudimentary analysis 😊.
Listing down here the more famous Indian scientists and scientific institution builders working out of India :
- Jagdish Chandra Bose (1858-1937); Wireless communication, Crescograph
- CV Raman (1888-1970); Raman scattering effect
- SN Bose (1894-1974); Boson particles
- Meghnad Saha (1893-1956); Saha equation of astrophysics, River Planning of India
- Homi Bhabha (1909-1966); Quantum theory
- Vikram Sarabhai (1919-1971); Indian Space program, ISRO
- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (1894-1955); CSIR founder
So Rocket Boys does justice by covering five scientists of the 20th century from the above list, though SS Bhatnagar had only a 2-minute role in the entire series. Of the above 7 luminaries, only CV Raman got the Nobel prize. So perhaps another series on him could be justified.
Saha was born on 1893, Bhabha in 1909 and Sarabhai in 1919. Pre-independence life for Indian scientists would have been different and hence different levels of contribution, especially to institute building. That’s why Raman and JC Bose (born in 1888 and 1858 resp) were great researchers and inventors but not institution builders. Bhabha and Sarabhai were gifted the serendipity of the era of their births for having got a chance for building institutions. And of course there was Nehru, the colossal and most intelligent leader for that era. To support these guys.
Another point to mull over is the overlap of other Indian scientists with the 1940-1971 era of Bhabha-Sarabhai glory. I mean what would those scientists have been doing and thinking of this duo and of their proximity to Nehru and participation in nation-building ? JC Bose was gone by then. But CV Raman and SN Bose lived through that entire phase – would love to know what was their interaction with Nehru, Bhabha, Sarabhai, and if Nehru was engaging with them also to tap their wisdom. Saha and Bhatnagar also unfortunately passed away in 1950s only.
Other Nobel winning Scientists of Indian Origin :
- Hargobind Khurana (1922-2011) Nobel in 1968 for the genetic code of the cell
- Subhramanyam Chandrashekhar (1910-1995, US citizen from 1953. 1983 Nobel Prize, Black Holes
- Venkataraman Ramakrishnan (1952 born) 2009 Nobel Prize for structure of ribosome
- Ronald Ross (1902 Nobel prize in Medicine, born in British India, but UK citizen)
Khurana and S Chandrashekhar were contemporaries of the Rocket Boys, almost same age as Bhabha, but they emigrated to the USA and did great individual work there. Both were ironically born in erstwhile Pakistan 😊.
Coming back to Rocket Boys. The dramatisation of the series to make the show mainstream and not let it remain a documentary, may have irritated some puritans (like my dad, an ex-scientist from BARC). Bhabha jumping into the pool of Apsara reactor with a screw-driver, Bhabha and Sarabhai racing on the roof to swap the Union Jack with the Tricolour, and the entire CIA angle became too much to digest with a straight face.
Meghnad Saha’s character getting morphed into Mehdi Raza’s was an unfortunate creative twist. Could have created another fictional character like Dr Shrivastav for Mehdi Raza too. By mentioning Calcutta Institute and Cyclotron, there was no doubt left as to who was Mehdi Raza modelled on. After that, to insinuate that he was a pawn in the hands of the CIA, that he contested and won the Lok Sabha elections backed by CIA and almost sold the nation to the CIA is a bit sacrilegious and as mentioned early, unfortunate.
Another facet of our history which came out well was PM Nehru’s backing for such research in atomic energy way back in 1946 itself when the roadmap for Independent India was only being laid. When Nehru writes about scientific temper in His Discovery of India, we know where he’s coming from. His being at the helm during those times definitely helped in the new nation embracing a robust roadmap for technology and science, and later on for the temples of modern India (the dams and the IITs). That Shastriji and Indira Gandhi continued on the path of atomic energy research and that “Buddha did smile” in 1974 in Pokhran is a testimony to that.
For people who want to savour this topic more, am sharing below links of some more articles with interesting analysis of Rocket Boys, which have appeared in the Press in the past 1-2 months :
Shekhar Gupta’s link which talks about the imaginary character of Mehdi Raza in great detail :
Article by Amrita Shah, the official biographer of Sarabhai :
A mixed feeling review :
https://thewire.in/culture/rocket-boys-review
List of nations which have nuclear capability as of today (13080 nuclear warheads, 90% of which are in USA and Russia. India is “rumoured” to have about 150 !!! Israel about 500) :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons
Rational Exuberance 