While they borrow their premise from the events around the failure of Chandrayaan 2, followed by the success of Chandrayaan 3, the makers of Space Gen: Chandrayaan clarify at the outset that they have taken ‘creative liberties’ in their storytelling. It’s an important disclaimer, because the said liberties are what lie at the core of everything that's wrong with the series — a true story of heroic proportions, where success was achieved under unlikely circumstances, is reduced to a show as generic and bland as they come.

Cast: Nakuul Mehta, Shriya Saran, Danish Sair, Prakash Belawadi, Gopal Datt

Created by: Anurabh Kumar

Streaming on: JioHotstar

The writers rely way too much on their figments of imagination, which ironically takes away from its intent of celebrating a true story of victory against so many obstacles.  While the actual Chandrayaan mission was largely spearheaded by a team of scientists hailing from south India, this fictional interpretation is insteaded headlined by a male north Indian protagonist (played by Nakuul Mehta). The tropes and arcs are largely worn-out, and there is very little that grabs our interest.

Despite having potential drama in its actual series of events, the series aspires for a kind of melodrama that’s all too familiar for us. It’s not enough that Arjun’s father was a soldier who died while serving his nation — he has to be named Vikram, which is also the name of the satellite Arjun is currently responsible for. There’s also a bit of TVF-styled morality play at work, as Arjun figures out that he would rather stick to the job that gives him a sense of self-worth over something that earns him a bigger car and house.

This is just one of the issues with Space Gen: Chandrayaan, though.  The shows gradually gets so caught up in placing Arjun at its centre (besides projecting itself as a patriotism project) that the stakes appear long forgotten by the time we are in episode 4.  We barely get a sense of the four years that have passed between the two Chandrayaan missions. It’s apparent that the mission’s focus was on global power battles and national pride more than scientific victory, but the writers fail to bring enough weight to these elements. As a result, while we consistently hear terms like ‘geopolitics,’ they appear increasingly superficial. For a story that’s all about rising above the barriers and skepticism, the writers struggle to built a sense of threat, often operating in a manner that’s more functional rather than emotional. Which is why when Ramaiah (Prakash Belawadi) talks about how a nation’s glory lies in a scientist’s glory, it makes no imprint. 

Danish Sait is arguably wasted in a role that neither puts his comic chops to good use nor does a good job of bringing anything new from him.  Gopal Datt’s casting too is a befuddling choice, since he pitches Mohanty somewhere between an obnoxious boss and a class buffoon who brings everyone down with him. Either ways, it’s hard to take his character seriously despite the obviously high stakes. Shriya Saran really doesn’t have much to do either. While Nakuul Mehta gets the meatiest part, his intensity often feels far out of sync with the rest of the performances.

Prakash Belawadi is the only actor who manages to rise above the script and bring some genuine emotion to the drama even if the script-writing remains lacking for most parts. 

Also, considering how integral Arjun remains to the narrative, one wonders if the makers ever considered approaching this story from an internal perspective, telling the story of a man dealing with his emotional baggage as he navigates his role in one of the most crucial scientific missions of a nation trying to climb the geopolitical ladder. There are at least two moments early on that hint at such a promise — During one of them, the visual of a crash-landing satellite beautifully merges into the Diwali fireworks. In another, a battlefield visual from the past seamlessly blends into the surface of moon, connecting two moments of struggle for Arjun.  The visual effects are not bad either, but what eventually sinks the series is its desperate attempt to pander.

The signs are way too many and way too blatant to ignore. The phrase ‘Naya Bharat’ is heard on more than a handful of occasions. The ‘Make in India’ phrase appears more like an advertisement than a solution organically stemming out of a character (It doesn’t help that Shriya Saran’s character remains half-baked). In another ironical touch, the scientists (and scriptwriters, by extension) co-opt religious rituals as an important, if not essential, part of their scientific mission. 

However, the most jarring of these touches is how every episode ends with a gratitude note for ISRO — before we could even process the drama or the emotional stakes, we are instantly forced to read how the makers remain indebted to ISRO. We can still hear the background score from the final visual, but now we are distracted. Space Gen: Chandrayaan is a generic and clumsy series about a rather heroic true story that’s nonetheless more eager to pander than to celebrate — and  the makers never let us forget that.