Gen Alpha Reviews: Rocket Boys Season 2

Rocket Boys Season 2

Sony LIV

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Trapped in a control room, a radiation leak at Trombay Centre, Dr Homi Bhabha and another scientist Mehdi Reza struggle with the manual lever as Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam try to launch India’s second rocket. There’s glory on one side; tension on another.

The rocket hasn’t made it, will Rocket Boys Season 2 make it?

Rocket Boys Season 2 is everything that Season 1 taught me.

My first-ever review of an OTT show and it is also the first-ever Indian show I’ve watched. I began with little expectation as I sat along with my granduncle who I was visiting in my Spring Break to watch Season 1 of Rocket Boys last week. I wasn’t sure I would want to even watch a minute of it.

As I returned to Mumbai and met my mom, the first thing I asked her was to get me a subscription for the OTT channel so that I could watch its just-dropped Season 2. That was given to me along with a finger wag of a no-more-than-one-episode-a-day warning.

Gleeful, I jumped onto my bed and put on the TV, I felt a tingling sensation go up my spine. I was anxious to know what would happen next, India’s next move. The Rocket Boys is a historically-inspired fictionalised OTT series about how scientists Dr Homi Bhabha and Dr Vikram Sarabhai try and fulfill their scientific goals when India is in a critical state. Not just me, in the show even America is closely watching India’s nuclear progress.

I watched the first episode, and I have to say, it was beautifully structured. Actors Jim Sarbh and Ishwak Singh portrayed their emotions amazingly. A special note on Jim Sarbh: I think he looks a lot like a Parsi uncle who sits at a café near our home.

Being surrounded by spies, inside out, the tension was perfectly orchestrated. The most shocking part was when Dr Homi Bhabha told Dr Mehdi Reza to “get lost” with so much emotion, I almost felt that scene was real.

The sad part was when the rocket exploded. Yes, they succeeded in launching it, but a problem in the engine caused that rocket to crash down with a bang. Dr Vikram Sarabhai says to his disappointed team in that moment that everything is impossible till it is achieved. Next time I don’t do so well in a Math assignment, I’ll use that line to make myself feel better.

What got my attention was that Dr Vikram Sarabhai wants to use technology to set up satellites to reach out to the world via TV. I wondered how so many years ago without mobile phones, I-pads, laptops he knew that communication was going to be the future and not missiles.

So far I am on episode 4, and I have been chewing my nails furiously.

All in all, I think this is a drama that should be on your watchlist. If you know of kids my age (10 years and above), ask them to watch it. And if you can, give them company. My mum thanked me for asking her to join in.

Signing off,

Trina Chaitanya