Nambi Narayan - Central News Hub

‘Madhavan transformed Nambi Narayanan a great scientist on screen’

The visuals that I shot during these visits were later used for the documentary, ‘Nambi: The Scientist’. It was indeed an experience for making a movie in a larger frame…Prajesh Sen speaks with Arun Lakshman

The movie ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’ released globally on July 2 and is gaining good reviews as well as positive word of mouth.

The movie is about the life and struggles of the country’s eminent scientist, Dr. Nambi Narayanan who was a senior scientist in the ISRO and later was alleged of being involved in espionage.

He fought the case and won it and got acquitted of all charges and even made the police pay him compensation for undue detention in police custody and trauma.

Scripted and directed by actor R. Madhavan, the movie has been co-directed by Prajesh Sen, who had written a book on Nambi Narayanan and made a documentary on the eminent scientist.

We caught up with Prajesh Sen, who has acted in several hit movies in the Malayalam film industry after quitting his job as a journalist in a leading Malayalam newspaper.

You are part of the movie Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, Please share your experiences about the film.

A: Experience means my close association with Nambi Narayanan Sir. I was in school when I first heard about the ISRO spy scandal and had a feeling that it was true. But later when I grew up, read a lot, and developed my own social outlook, I could understand that he was wronged.

Later, I became a professional journalist and tried to get his interview but he didn’t relent. However, after constant perusal, I could get his interview and my interview with him was a big hit which was titled ‘Is there an answer to my nine questions’.

Then I wrote a book on him, ‘Ormakalude Brahmanapatham’, which took five years for me to complete. I travelled to places where he had been to, including Vernon in France, and there I took visuals which later turned out to become my documentary on him, ‘Nambi, the Scientist’.

Q: Popular actor R. Madhavan is casted as Nambi Narayanan and how was the feel of Madhavan as Nambi?

A: In fact Madhavan the actor has transformed into Nambi Narayanan literally and he has totally become the great scientist on screen. All the mannerisms of Nambi Narayanan were properly displayed by Madhavan. We never felt that he was acting but was living the role of Nambi sir. On watching the movie in a theatre among the crowd, I turned highly emotional at the performance of R. Madhavan.

Q: Was your documentary, ‘Nambi: The Scientist’, a good experience in the larger frame of the movie?

A: Yes, I did the documentary on my experience with travelling with Nambi Narayanan sir during the research on his book. Had the experience of visiting the scientific labs where he had conducted research, his studies, and everywhere.

The visuals that I shot during these visits were later used for the documentary, ‘Nambi: The Scientist’. It was indeed an experience for making a movie in a larger frame.

Q: R. Madhavan has played the role of Nambi Narayanan and he acted in the movie as a 27-year-old Nambi and later as a 75-year-old Nambi Narayanan also. How was the feeling while working with him during the shoot?

A: Yes, the period of Nambi Narayanan from the age of 27 to him turning the age of 75 was portrayed in the movie. This led to the movie taking two years to shoot to be completed.

Madhavan had even bleached his beard and hair to get the grey look and had taken enormous effort and strain to bring the body condition to that of a 27-year-old Nambi Narayanan and later as a 75-year-old. This is the first time that I am seeing an actor taking this much strain and this was a totally dedicated effort on the part of R. Madhavan.

Q: Madhavan has gone on record that this was his best film ever. Do you have the same feel?

A: There is no confusion in stating that this is the best role played by R. Madhavan in his career. He has put his soul and heart and physique into the movie. He has turned each moment into the scientist Nambi Narayanan. This is his best performance, best makeover, and best direction.

Even if this was his first directorial venture, he had performed exceedingly well. As a co-director of the movie, I had the feel of his total performance in the movie as an actor and director. His thirty years of acting experience was converted in the making of the movie.

Q: You had written a book on Nambi Narayanan and later did a documentary on the Rocket scientist. Did these experiences help you during the direction of the movie?

A: The experiences I had in writing a book on him and later making a documentary on him helped me a lot during the shooting of the movie. Also, I traveled quite a lot with Nambi Narayanan Sir.

All these helped during the shooting of the movie. I had a personal rapport with him which can be termed a friendship and this helped me during the shoot. This has helped the totality of the movie as such.

Q: Will the movie have a major impact across the globe as this is not a movie on a sportsperson or a movie star but on a scientist. Your comment?

A: After watching this movie, the people would think of themselves — not only scientists I mean, but each and every individual who watches this movie will think about themselves in the shoes of the great scientist and how he was wronged and targeted.

The life of Nambi Narayanan, the scientist will be etched in golden letters in the hearts of the people who had watched the movie.

Everyone who had watched the movie praised Nambi Narayanan sir and said that they were ignorant as to what a big man he was. People knew him only as a person who had escaped after being charged in an espionage case. Now the audience understood that he is beyond that and had made major contributions to science.

Each individual who has watched the movie will understand that he is such a great nationalist and how much people will celebrate Madhavan as an actor, and so will Nambi Narayanan, the scientist be celebrated. The movie will give great recognition to the scientific community of the country and the world.

Q: How was the experience during the shoot of this movie?

A: I had completed the movie ‘Captain’ and was doing my preliminary discussions for my movie, ‘Vellam’ when I joined this team as a co-director. I could learn several things from Madhavan Sir and how he was molding actors and even as a co-director,

I was made comfortable by him. Sync sound was done by people who have been exposed to that area of expertise. Graphics, including VFX, was done by a big company called Assemblage and I had the opportunity to visit their premises and cooperate with them giving me a great experience.

The camera for the movie was wielded by Sreesha Roy from West Bengal, who is an FTII Pune product and this was his sixtieth movie. His experience helped us enjoy the style of his work. The editor of the movie was Bijith Bala who is the editor of all my movies and his experience and professionalism helped the movie and the team very much.

The movie was made on a wider platform and Shah Rukh Khan and Suriya did cameo roles in the movie. I am totally indebted to R. Madhavan and Nambi Narayanan Sir for having given me an opportunity to be part of this movie which will be a game-changer.

ALSO READ-‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’ to release on July 1

TWIST: ISRO case gets a new version – martyr or kingpin?

The espionage case is a techno-legal matter. It was never discussed in that way. It was always discussed from the point of view of persons; not from the POV of facts… Rajasekharan Nair speaks with Vishnu Makhijani

S. Nambi Narayanan, the aerospace engineer discharged in what is known as the ISRO spy case of the 1990s, is now playing the martyr to cover up his own role in the case, says veteran journalist J. Rajasekharan Nair in the sequel to his book on the infamous episode.

“Nambi Narayanan was a key figure in the failed operation to illegally transport cryogenic rocket technology from Glavkosmos (a subsidiary of the Russian State Space Corporation Roscomos) to ISRO using clandestine methods under a 1991 agreement between Glavkosmos and ISRO that was cancelled by Russia in 1993 invoking a force majeure,” Nair told in an interview.

“The operation was jointly planned by ISRO top brass and an influential section in Glavkosmos. The operation was illegal because the 1991 agreement meant to transfer the cryogenic technology was cancelled and the new agreement signed in 1994 January had no clause for technology transfer,” Nair said.

Glavkosmos, according to him, agreed to supply the material but was not ready for door-to- door delivery. Nambi Narayanan contacted Air India but it refused to carry the material without proper documents. Nambi Narayanan then contacted Ural Airlines “who agreed to take the risk”.

“Though there are five airports in Moscow (where Glavkosmos is located), airlifting the material from any of these airports, hoodwinking the US eyes, was unthinkable. So the material was transported to Tashkent in Uzbekistan by road travelling more than 3,300 km and from there airlifted to ISRO. It is reliably learnt that Nambi Narayanan was on the first Ural flight,” Nair said.

“Nambi Narayanan doesn’t want these pieces of information (that ISRO had planned an illegal operation and he was a crucial player in it) to become public. Though he had approached different legal forums nearly ten times, never did he pray that the entire matter surrounding the espionage case be proved. Moreover, when a PIL was filed before the Kerala High court for a judicial enquiry into the espionage case, he fought against it.

“He wants only that much truth that would keep him afloat in his safe zone to come to the surface and doesn’t want the whole matter (for instance, who planted the false and baseless spy story and why) to reach the public domain,” Nair maintained.

The ISRO spy case, which hit the headlines in 1994, centred around allegations of transfer of cryogenic technology and confidential documents on India’s space programme to a foreign country by two scientists (including Nambi Narayanan) and four others, including two Maldivian women. Nambi Narayanan was eventually discharged after a laborious process, awarded compensation of Rs. 50 lakhs by the Supreme Court but accepted Rs.1 crore as an out-of-court settlement from the Kerala government on a Rs 1 crore suit of damages he had sought, and was awarded a Padma Bhushan in 2019.

“As the public gropes in the dark about the essence of the ISRO espionage case, a re-evaluation of the case is imperative to see afresh why the espionage story cropped up. It is most essential to re-read the text of the ISRO espionage case through documents, facts, and prudence, and not through the projection of individuals as the good, the bad and the ugly,” Nair writes in the book, ‘Classified – Hidden Truths In the ISRO Spy Story’ (Srishti).

The media, in general, he said during the interview, has not discussed the meat of the matter: What was the espionage case and how could IB and Kerala Police say that certain persons in ISRO had leaked cryogenic technology to a foreign country using two semi-literate Maldivian women at a time (1994) when ISRO didn’t have the technology?

“No journalist bothered to check with ISRO whether they had the cryogenic technology in 1994. Instead, media houses sent journalists to the Maldives to collect information about the two Maldivian women and filed sleazy stories on them. All the accused were presented as morally corrupt persons when morality had nothing to do with the espionage case,” Nair said.

After the CBI had concluded in 1996 that the case was false and baseless, nobody, not even CBI, asked “how the absurd spy story came from nowhere and why the Director of IB had directed the Kerala Police to register a case under the Indian Official Secrets Act”, Nair said

“Nobody, not even the CBI asked why was Ural Airlines carrying material to ISRO from Glavkosmos and why the transportation came to an abrupt end in the wake of the espionage story (if the transportation was legal).

“Nobody (not even the judiciary) asked the pertinent questions how a case could be filed under the Indian Official Secrets Act without ISRO or the central government filing a written complaint as is unambiguously made clear in Section 13(3) and (5) of the Act,” Nair contended.

Instead, he said, the media were hailing the police officers who did an illegal act of registering a case under the IOS Act and airing the absurd story that cryogenic rocket technology had been leaked to a foreign country at a time when ISRO didn’t have the technology.

“Now, when the situation changed, the same media are hailing the old villains as the new heroes and the old heroes are the new villains. So, Nambi Narayanan and other accused are the new heroes; the Kerala Police officers and IB officials are villains. Their discussions are around individuals and are not focused on the central matter.

“The espionage case is a techno-legal matter. It was never discussed in that way. It was always discussed from the point of view of persons; not from the POV of facts,” Nair maintained.

“That is why the case is still confusing. My book attempts to do a post mortem of the case from the techno-legal angle strictly based on facts, documents, and records,” he added.

ISRO and the Indian government, Nair writes in the book, “need to tell the people to what extent the misfired ‘patriotic’ adventure has cost ISRO in terms of money, especially when the business from the space market is expected to touch $558 billion by 2026 and up to $1.75 trillion by 2040.

“It is high time ISRO and the government of India come clean on the matter. If both parties confirm this operation (under the 1991 agreement) was in the interest of the nation and hence need to be treated as brave acts of patriotism’, a different picture would emerge.

“But then, one needs to deconstruct the very concept of patriotism,” Nair concludes the book.

ALSO READ-Senior scientist from Kerala is new ISRO chief