Cinema News

Self-Proclaimed Film Critics Complain About Nambi Being Shown A Patriot & Hindu In Rocketry Film

July 2, 2022
The Commune

Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, the ambitious project of actor Madhavan who has written, directed, produced and also acted in the film released in Indian theatres on July 1, 2022.

The film is based on the life of Nambi Narayanan, a former ISRO scientist who was falsely accused of espionage and later exonerated by the Supreme Court of India.

The film has received good reception from the audience with people filling theatres based on word of mouth reviews.

However, a few film critics known for their predisposition towards anything Indian and Hindu have expressed displeasure in the portrayal of the rocket scientist.

Anupama Chopra, the founder and editor of the cinema-related digital platform Film Companion, has written a review in which she insinuated the film to be too patriotic and too Hindu.

“It’s admirable that the film has brought Narayanan’s many accomplishments into the spotlight, but the screenplay repeatedly underlines his patriotism and also leans pointedly into his religion. Our first visual of Narayanan is in the puja room at his home. At crucial moments, he prays. Narayanan is a true-blue Hindu patriot.”, Anupama Chopra wrote.

Another self-proclaimed film critic Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute, a card-carrying leftist known for her explicit anti-Hindu venom wrote “The film begins with the heavens above and the earth below, Vedic chants in the background. It is difficult to sit through it without being reminded of Madhavan’s disastrous claim that ISRO scientists had used the ancient geocentric panchangam for their Mars mission, and that Indians already knew everything that was to be known about space a thousand years ago. We meet Nambi’s family, and his daughter casually remarks that she’s unsure if her husband – who also works at ISRO – is a scientist or astrologer because he’s always holding on to the panchangam in bed. My heart, which was already sinking, reached my feet at this point. Was the whole movie going to be on WhatsApp University territory? To my relief, it does take off. Somewhat.”.

The film opens with the chants of Sri Venkatesa Suprabhatam, the sacred hymn dedicated to Lord Venkateshwara which is what the Hindumisic film critic of the The News Minute refers to in her review.

Contrary to popular perception, Nambi Narayanan is not a Brahmin from Kerala but hails from the Tamil Hindu community called Senai Thalaivar.

Madhavan, who plays the real-life character of Nambi Narayanan in the film is portrayed as a devout Hindu sporting vermilion, doing pooja in his house and offering oblations to the sacred Tulsi plant.

Many on social media lashed out at Anupama Chopra for her averseness to the Hindu faith.

“If it was a Muslim character doing Namaz, would Anupama have a problem with it? No.”, anonymous Twitter handle @cogitoiam wrote.

It is to be noted that these critics had poured adulations on actor Suriya’s Soorari Pottru, a mischievous distortion of the real-life story of Air Deccan’s G.R. Gopinath who is a Brahmin and a capitalist. However, he is shown as a follower of anti-Hindu bigot ‘Periyar’ E.V. Ramasamy Naicker and a ‘socialist’ capitalist in the film. They did not even mention about this blatant unwarranted distortion in their reviews.

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