Rocket Boys Season 2 Review: More History Lesson This Time, But Soars When Grounded In The Personal
One of the best in the OTT space!
Having binged Season 2 of Rocket Boys, director Abhay Pannu’s science drama about the pioneers of India’s nuclear and space programmes, Dr. Homi J. Bhabha and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, I’m here to report that it remains a favourite. A lot of that has to do with the earnest performances of its cast—Jim Sarah, Ishwak Singh, Regina Cassandra, Saba Azad, and Arjun Radhakrishnan—how Harshvir Oberai’s captures the story with his lens, and Achint Kaur’s rousing music elevating the emotions. I’ll begin this one just as I began my review of Rocket Boys Season 1, on a note of heartwarming satisfaction. You know, when you set high expectations and a series delivers on it? Well, Rocket Boys Season 2 mostly does it. Mostly.
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That being said, compared to the near perfection that its first season was, Season 2 gives me a little less of the charming friendship and personal stories that I fell in love with, and more of a history lesson that I’ve already read before. And for me, who came to this Sony LIV show not for the textbook checklist but to read between the lines and get to know these illustrious men on a hitherto unseen level, that makes for a bittersweet feeling.
Season 1 was about laying the foundations of who Vikram Sarabhai and Homi Bhabha, the men who shaped India’s nuclear future, were. And so, we spent more time with their personal stories than their professional achievements. Yes, there was the establishment of the AEC and INCOSPAR, and the obstacle course they had to surmount to realise their dreams. But there was friendship, love, and a focus on the dreams that they dreamt at the dawn of an independent India. Pannu accomplished so much through the show’s beautiful, unhurried pace, capturing both the time period that the story is set in and the nuances of these characters’ lives.
But with Season 2, it is time for the fruits of these men’s labour to ripen. Season 2 runs through the payoff of Sarabhai and Bhabha’s life’s work, juxtaposed with a sort of checklist of key historical moments, such as Nehru’s passing, the ascension of Indira Gandhi, Sarabhai’s successful experiment of using satellites to bring education programmes to Indian villages, and the CIA’s interference and alleged involvement in the deaths of Lal Bahadur Shastri and Homi Bhabha. Of course, this is inevitable. In fact, Rocket Boys Season 2 pretty much shifts genres, going into full-blown thriller and espionage mode for the most part, while it slithers from one historical event to another, albeit with really questionable prosthetics that buzzed like a relentless bee in my bonnet.
While Season 1 began on ideological differences between the Father Of India’s Space Programme and the Father Of India’s Nuclear Programme on war and peace, Season 2 begins with the fateful event at Pokhran. You know which one, right? It’s a poetic beginning and ending for this season, an answer to the impasse that both Sarabhai and Bhabha were at in Season 1: Only equal power can ensure peace. However, the theatrics are upped by several notches in the journey to this point. There are spies, and there are conspiracy theorists, and power tussles in the political corridors. And no doubt, these made for strong moments.
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But for me, Rocket Boys soared when it was grounded in the intimate moments of love, heartbreak, friendship, and family. Like the scene at Darpana, when Mrinalini, aware of her husband’s unfaithfulness, weaves it into a dance recital on stage. There’s a graceful dignity in her decision to do so, choosing neither silence nor conflict, and you can see it on Vikram and Kamala’s face how the guilt hits harder than if it were a direct confrontation. I could list any of the scenes between the Sarabhai family, or the one between Homi and Pipsi after she learns of a news that shatters her, and you’ll see just how much you look forward to feeling moved by these moments than the euphoria you’d feel over any major scientific achievement.
After all, love is what changes Sarabhai’s mind about Bhabha’s mission. Necessity is the mother of invention, but you’d be surprised how many of these scientific achievements are motivated by love. Because love births a need so strong that you’d invent something, anything, to keep your loved ones safe, or their dreams alive and thriving. Both these rocket boys might’ve begun by doing what they did for the love of science and their country. But their most crucial motivations, at the time when it really mattered, were powered by love and friendship. To see these men of science as humans is what Rocket Boys excels at, only Season 2 gives us those moments far and fewer in between. I would’ve loved some more.
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Performances
No notes! This cast’s performance rocket launches straight into the heart. Jim Sarbh is indomitable and charming as Dr. Homi Bhabha, and when he’s not there on the screen, his absence is imposing too. Ishwak Singh as Vikram Sarabhai, a man with ideals but not without his own follies, plays this complex character so well. But for me this season’s scene stealer for Regina Cassandra as the perfect embodiment of a dancer, Mrinalini Sarabhai. I couldn’t take my eyes off her stoic and graceful body language in every scene; she absolutely held her own. And a mention for the sincere and heartwarming act by Arjun Radhakrishnan as Kalam; he made me smile every time he did something that caused Sarabhai to praise or mockingly reprimand him!
Verdict
I watched this Rocket Boys Season 2 with my mom, and we spent considerable time referring to Wikipedia to fact-check, the jarring prosthetics (Indira’s nose??? Sarabhai’s ears???), and anticipating which event was up next. But we were quiet and absorbing the moments, smiling even when it wasn’t giving us the textbook stuff, but some of the more out-of-syllabus interactions between its characters.
Nevertheless, reiterating, Rocket Boys remains a favourite and is essential viewing for anyone who claims to be an explorer of the Indian OTT space frontier.
Rocket Boys Season 2 is currently streaming on SonyLIV.
