'On the morning of 6th August 1945, at around 8am'
'...the city of Hiroshima was bombed.'
'Within a minute, 80% of Hiroshima was wiped out.'
'More than 150000 people died instantly.'
'And the survivors were left crippled.'
'Before America's Congress, President Truman makes...
'...the most momentous speech since the death of Franklin Roosevelt.'
'He declares political war on Soviet Russia.'
'In American eyes, Britain is no longer the bulwark...'
'...against communist expansion.'
'Dear Homi.'
'It's with great pleasure and excitement that I invite you...'
'...to the inauguration of the Physical Research Laboratory.'
'It would mean so much to me and Mrinalini...'
Thank you.
Sir, one more.
Hey.
Sir.
Congratulations, Vikram.
- Well done. - Thank you.
Congratulations.
Thank you so much for coming, sir.
Please. We must have you for a photograph.
- It's okay. - Please come.
- Come.
Okay.
Come, sir. I will give you a tour.
How much staff do you have?
Well, it's just me and Ramanathan for now.
But this is just the beginning.
We have ambitious plans.
Cosmic telescope.
Two people?
I heard you are a one-man army.
We are scientific citizens of an interdependent world.
The more the merrier.
True.
By the way...
...if you don't mind, shall I give you an advice?
Yes. By all means. Please tell me.
Don't choose random people.
Choose those researchers who have hunger and drive.
And call them only when you have an interesting setup to give them.
Absolutely.
Otherwise you will also push new and young scientists...
...to become teachers like TIFR.
But Homi is hiring dedicated scientists for TIFR.
And you guys were going to start a new division of balloon flights.
We had to reduce the staff.
And future projects have been halted.
Homi didn't tell me anything about this.
Homi will tell you provided he knows.
Mathur is handling everything in TIFR.
That's very unlike Homi.
Especially for his passion project. I mean...
What's the problem, Mr. Mathur?
Vikram, honestly, I don't want to discuss all this today.
Nonsense.
Vikram and Homi are family.
In fact, Homi has gone insane.
He hasn't even come to TIFR since several months.
Mr. Bhatnagar, he is just going through a bad phase.
Not phase. He has gone mad.
Why are you exaggerating it?
- Now you are defending him. - I am not trying to defend...
The situation seems tense.
We haven't even started the experiment, Mr. Bhatnagar.
Ramanathan, I was only praising you.
You have arranged a brilliant setup.
The best thing is that both of you are crystal clear about your vision.
Cosmic rays is the future.
Okay, Vikram. I will take your leave.
Okay.
- Wish you all the best. - Thank you.
See you at Nehru's panel meeting.
- Next week. - Next week.
Thank you, sir.
- See you, Mathur. - Yes, sir.
I'll see him to the door.
Panel meeting?
Mr. Pandit is establishing a panel which will include...
...our country's top scientific institutes.
To support them. It's a brilliant initiative.
I want him to include PRL.
Which other institutes are included in the panel?
We don't know about others.
But one name will definitely be included.
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, of course.
Calcutta. Calcutta college of Science.
Oh yes! Latest facilities, best students.
- Great scientific culture. - Yeah.
Raza Mehdi has done what we had planned to do.
Yes. The cyclotron man.
One has to give him credit for his international network.
And what he has achieved with Berkeley especially.
- Yes. Absolutely. - Yeah.
How is Mr. Raza?
He cannot meet you today. He is very busy.
No. No. Go to your class.
- Good morning, sir. - Good morning.
Sir, the reporters...
He's waiting for you, sir.
- Good morning, sir. - Good morning, sir.
- Good morning. - Good morning, sir.
Mr. Journalist.
Professor Raza.
I have never heard about 'Swatantra' magazine.
It started working in Bombay a few months ago.
But I have come to Calcutta only to meet you.
I see.
- Good morning, sir. - Good morning.
- What name did you say? - Didn't I tell you?
Prosenjit Dey.
I am a Bengali. You are also a Bengali.
It will be fun.
I don't know about that.
- Do you want to see the facilities? - Please.
Come.
I started it in 1935.
I developed a small-scale cyclotron.
And then, I tried to make it more sophisticated.
In today's date, it is India's top...
...nuclear physics institute.
And TIFR?
Homi Bhabha's institute.
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. It's...
- Yes. Yes. - It's in Bombay.
Yes.
I know Homi Bhabha.
And his TIFR too.
I didn't know you are interested in failed experiments.
This is not what I meant.
Look. India's first 39-inch cyclotron.
- May I? - Yeah. Please.
It's a front-page image, Mr. Dey.
Shall we start with the front page of your story?
Mister, whether it's the front page or last page...
...each page of my story is science.
You can start from anywhere.
That's true, Mr. Raza.
But we want to know about your family, your home, your close friends.
What has that got to do with the institute?
No. My readers would like to know...
...where the founder of the institute has come from.
Especially if it's a front-page story.
You wish to know my story?
Come. Let's go.
Come.
I come from here.
I don't have anything besides this photo.
This is all I have.
- I... - You didn't understand.
Our country has engaged in not one, but many freedom struggles.
Unfortunately, the war we have been waging since generations...
...is neither against the British nor against the Hindus.
I didn't understand what you mean.
Have you heard about Muharram?
Yes. It's a festival.
It's the month of mourning, mister.
For us, Shias.
Have a seat.
I understood the meaning of mourning the day...
...my parents...
...were dragged out of their home.
What was their crime?
That they were Shias?
I am sorry. I...
I didn't want to ask this question.
No. No. Since you have asked then hear the complete story.
This is my heritage.
Riots and bloodshed between Shias and Sunnis.
And the way of the world is that regardless of whose fight it is,
... who dies in the end?
The poor.
Come on.
Leave it.
You got your front-page story.
Your story is really interesting.
Our readers will enjoy reading it.
I don't know about that.
It's not a glamorous story.
If you want glamour, then go to Bombay.
Homi Bhabha's grand mansion is there.
Click its photo. Print it.
I have heard that nowadays Homi...
...is found less in TIFR office...
...and more in Mehrangir.
I don't ever comment about that.
Look, you are the journalist but I am giving you the news.
Find out. It could be an interesting story.
Pipsy?
Homi.
When did you get back?
How long has it been?
I haven't...I haven't seen you in...
How long has it been? It must have been a year.
You haven't aged a day.
You still look 14 years old.
Where...where were you?
Lahore, right?
Paris. Remember?
Paris...
Europe's Lahore.
Come. Sit down.
Sit. Sit. Sit.
Come on. Do you want a drink?
- No. - I'll get you a drink.
- Homi. - I'll get you a drink.
Pipsy, just give me five minutes though.
I am in the middle of...in the middle of a breakthrough.
- So.. - What breakthrough, Homi?
It's..
It's hard to explain.
Everyone is right then.
You have really gone mad.
What gives them that impression?
This bomb. Is this the reason of your insanity?
You mean, the greatest invention of mankind.
Yeah. Yeah. It is.
- Greatest invention, Homi? - Yes.
That's what I said.
Lakhs of people died.
Crores of people were saved.
Not that they deserve saving but...
Vikram tells me you have stopped going to TIFR.
Yeah. What's the point?
Pipsy, what...what are you doing?
I am so sorry.
You know what? I would love that drink.
- Can we have it outside though? - Yeah.
You look just like him.
He would be so proud.
Thank you for calling me, aunt Mehreen.
You are very patient.
Had I been in your place, I would have...
...dragged him out by his ears by now.
- Sugar? - No sugar.
There he is.
I should have called you earlier.
Shoo!
You are making noise.
Tell yourself to keep quiet.
Sshh..Keep quiet.
My grandfather used to date the head librarian of this place.
Your grandfather used to date David Sassoon?
He used to bring me here all the time.
He had the keys for the members only section.
Of course I made a copy.
Hurry. Hurry.
So are you suggesting, I date the head librarian?
Just come, Homi.
Sure.
The Voyage of the Beagle.
What about it?
By Charles Darwin.
You want more?
It... it chronicled his...
...voyage to South America in 1830 something.
And?
It sparked his studies on the theory of evolution.
The Physiologies of Photosynthesis.
J.C. Bose.
He invented the crescograph...
...which allows us to measure a plant's response to stimuli.
He basically proved that plants could feel.
And he refused to be patented.
Very interesting.
He wanted the technology available to everyone.
A real...
Free for all.
Which is what we could be having...
...if I didn't have to take this pop quiz.
Treaties on Radioactivity.
Marie Curie.
I think she won her second Nobel prize...What are we doing, Pipsy?
- Humor me. - I am.
Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei.
Galileo was formerly considered a heretic.
He was inquisitioned by the church.
He was a brave mad fellow. What...
Exactly.
Don't you understand?
The world could use a little madness.
Now you decide.
Whether you want to create a place for yourself amidst these lunatics...
...or you want to return to your room?
- Morning, Mathur.
Come on.
This way.
Get them all to the crusher.
Sir, I need it to be a powder so that they can make the slurry.
-You mean... - Fine of course.
Mathur! Finally!
Is this the time to come to work?
Also cigarette smoking is not allowed on this campus.
- Come on. Come on. Bolt. Bolt. - Fast. Fast. Fast.
Thank you, Ashok.
Ohh...
Boom.
Mathur.
Will you simply stare at me...
...or will you help me too?
- What is going on, Homi? - You should have come on time.
Come, come with me. - Coming.
Hello.
How are you?
I am fine, Kasturbhai. How are you?
I am also fine.
Mr. Ambalal is on the way.
There was a meeting with the mill's union leaders.
Is that so?
With the union leaders?
About what?
For the past few years the mill's profit is declining...
...and workers demands are increasing.
We are facing some problems.
Have the demands been made by the workers or by the union leaders?
You are intelligent.
You know everything.
Isn't this our old mill, Kasturbhai?
No. No. This is where the workers live.
- Shall we go? - You go. I will come.
- Can I sit here? - Sit.
What is your name?
Two annas.
Two annas for saying your name?
I don't have so much money.
Tell me your name.
My name is Shyam.
My name is Vikram.
You spin the top so well.
What else do you know?
Come on.
Mr. Pandit.
How are you, Mr. Raza?
Congratulations, Mr. Pandit. Everybody in Calcutta is saying...
...that you will be the first Prime Minister.
I told them, "There cannot be anybody else."
The British Prime Minister will make the announcement anytime soon.
Some final details are being worked out.
Let's see. Once that's done...
- Freedom. - A toast to freedom.
Cheers.
And a toast to our country's scientific progress.
Okay, Pandit ji...
...you were talking about forming a scientific committee.
The discussion has started.
We have received a few proposals.
We are checking and evaluating them.
We will let you know.
Excuse me.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
I would say that what is evident doesn't need to be proved.
My institute has the country's first Cyclotron.
And we have the ability to do many more innovations.
Certainly.
I want to say that we will always support you.
Absolutely.
I say Choksi, I don't see Jeh.
Jeh is over there, sir.
- Please excuse me. - Yeah.
- Jeh, I say... - Excuse me.
- Panditji, always a pleasure. - I've been looking for you...
There are other sorrows in the world besides work.
You are discussing work at the party.
Give your mind some rest.
Have a drink.
Mathur, scientists like me don't have time...
...to enjoy these grand parties.
Why do you always bring the topic back to self-pity?
Self-pity?
What is that?
We were discussing work, Mathur.
- You won't understand. - I am also talking about work.
You see, nowadays everybody's attention is on...
...Mountbatten's plan and Attlee's statement.
Nobody will listen to you.
That's true...
I have a grand plan and a surprise for you.
- Really? - For you.
Is that so?
- Brace your heart. - Okay.
Seems like the surprise is here.
Brace your heart, Mr. Raza.
- Homi!? - Uncle Choksi.
You have become the host of the scientific community.
You invited all my fellow scientists...
...except me?
What are you doing, Homi? Are you okay?
No. I am hurt.
- Why? - Yes.
What's with these trucks?
What you got them here for?
And what's in them?
What's that? Is that coal?
Yeah.
What are you doing with the coal, Homi?
Mostly for effect.
Effect? And what's that?
Engagement ring?
Preview of the coming attractions.
- Where is bhai? - Bhai? He...
Thank you, uncle Choksi.
- Bhai. - Homi.
- That was some entry. - Oh! Was it?
- Jeh. - What a...
Surprise. Yes, I know. I know.
Bhai...
...this is for you.
A present? For me?
Let's make this official.
Homi.
- This is... - A stone.
Nice gift.
Are you taking your neuro medicines, Homi?
What is this, Homi?
This stone holds the country's future.
- Some kind of joke. - No, brother.
We can extract one gram of Uranium from this small stone...
...which can produce energy equivalent of 3000 kilos of coal.
That means 1500. 1500.
3000 kilos of coal.
In two trucks.
And I am carrying this in my pocket.
This is just one gram.
Imagine...
...if these trucks are...
...filled with these stones...
...then how much energy can we produce?
And once we have Uranium mines...
...we can provide electricity to every village, every city,
...every house in this country.
- Are you sure about that, Homi? - Absolutely.
First I extracted Uranium ore...
...and then made a uranium-235 pellet from it.
I couldn't have brought the radioactive pellet here.
But with that pellet, with Uranium-235...
...we can make our first nuclear reactor core.
That's incredible!
So what do you say?
We must.
We will.
Why did you stop the music? Start playing.
Come on.
The Prime Minister of Britain, Clement Attlee has tasked Lord Mountbatten,
to hand over power to the Indians.
Where once Mountbatten's task was to Propose that different kingdoms, territories,
and states join the Assembly,
or remain independent.
'Now the last Viceroy has also been tasked with dividing British India,'
'into two independent nations by 15th August, 1947.'
Hello.
- How are you? - I'm fine.
Hello.
- Hello. - Hello.
How are you?
I am very well. Thank you.
So nice to see you.
Likewise. I am so glad you finally made it.
Yes. What a night.
Oh! I am sorry. Who are you?
I didn't recognize you.
Don't listen to your mom.
And don't listen to your dad at all.
- Homi! - Congratulations, Mrinalini.
Thank you.
- Come, aunt. Come. Come. - Come.
Come. Everyone is sitting over there.
Let's go and take a look.
- Carefully. Carefully. - Yes.
- Be careful.
Yes.
Homi.
When am I going to get one of these?
Mom, at your age it is not advisable.
Homi, at your age in a few years...
...it won't be possible.
- You look so pretty! - Honestly! Honestly!
The mother-to-be-glow thing must be real.
So is the morning sickness and the perpetual backache.
Come. Come.
Hello.
- How are you? - Welcome.
- Sir!
How are you doing?
How are you?
- It's a lovely house. - Yes. Welcome.
- Hello. - Hello. How are you?
- Gautam, how are you? - Hello.
Where is the worrisome father?
- Hello. - Hi.
He is looking after his other children.
I will bring him to his senses.
- Right? - Let's see.
Sir, drinks?
- Do you have liquor? - No, sir.
- But we will definitely talk about it. - Absolutely.
- Homi! - Vikram!
You are on time.
Can't be late for history now, can we?
I don't believe this.
- Hello. - Hello. Hello, sir.
So good to see you, my friend.
Excuse us.
- Excuse us. - Come.
- So good to see you. - Good to see you too.
Look at all these people.
It feels surreal, doesn't it?
Yet a long time coming.
How is Mrinalini?
Everything is fine. She is really good.
Why? What happened? Did she say something to you?
Is that... is that what I think it is?
You managed to fit the de Laval nozzle into the design.
- Gorgeous. - Thanks, Homi.
But won't the fuel ejection melt the recovery system?
Yes.
That's what I am struggling with.
What's the practical plan?
Choose an alternative material perhaps.
I will work on this, Homi.
But actually, there is something else that I want to show you.
I am opening a textile research institute in Ahmedabad.
An R&D unit that will improve technology and productivity...
...and provide better conditions for workers.
Do you think this is the right time to start another institute?
It's not just another institute, Homi.
It's a lot more than that.
Didn't you just open the PRL last month?
Aren't you heavily understaffed?
Come on, Homi.
You are the last person who should be talking about being understaffed.
- Oh! - You also didn't have staff...
...when you went to Mr. Pandit at the party...
...with your nuclear reactor proposal.
Don't remind me.
You know the Maharaja of Travancore?
Chithira Thirunal.
His state controls the largest Thorium reserves in the country.
And I need them.
So what's stopping you?
He is not willing to make Travancore a part of the Indian Union.
What will you do now?
I am going to Delhi next week to meet him.
I can't slow down the country's progress...
...because of a redundant Maharaja.
But you want me to slow down.
You want me to play safe.
Fine. Fire the rocket.
Fuel the lab. Do it all.
But how did the mill workers come in the picture?
You don't have to feel guilty for your ambitions, Sarabhai.
I am not doing this out of guilt, Homi.
Yes. Yes, you are.
No. This is not...this is not a charitable institute.
It is a research center.
The first of its kind in the country.
What about all this?
- It stays in this room. - The country will prosper.
It stagnates. It never moves out of the outhouse.
- This is... - Vikram! Homi!
Enough of the secret meeting.
I would like you to meet my friend, Kamla Chaudhary.
I am sorry. I hope we didn't disturb both of you.
Not at all, Kamla.
Unless they don't fight once or twice...
...they feel the evening has been wasted.
By the way, Homi, you would be interested to know...
...that Kamla is a fellow doctor from Michigan State University.
Oh! Another scientist.
Excuse me.
- Homi Bhabha. - Sorry to disappoint you.
PhD in Social Psychology.
Oh! Be gone, devil!
But if you want a real basket case, help us.
Help us by helping him.
Really?
So you are a PhD in Social Psychology, is it?
- That's right. - That sounds particularly...
...fascinating to me right now.
Homi and I were just talking about...
...this research center that I am working on.
We could use your expertise in this.
Your new textile research institute?
Yes.
She had told me about it.
Oh! You did? How lovely!
Vikram.
Come.
It's time.
Let's go.
"Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny."
"And now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge."
"Not wholly or in full measure..."
"...but very substantially."
"At the stroke of the midnight hour..."
"...when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom."
"A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history..."
"...when we step out from the old to the new."
"When an age ends and when the soul of a nation..."
"...long suppressed, finds utterance."
"It is fitting that at this solemn moment..."
"...we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India..."
"...and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity."
"At the dawn of history, India started on her unending quest..."
Isn't it wonderful, Sarabhai?
Your child will be born in a free India.
Not just my child, Homi.
But the future generations to come.
All of them will be born in a free India.
They will get opportunities that were denied...
...to the children of our country.
We are also getting an opportunity...
...to work with young minds.
To lead them into a whole new world of possibility.
Into a new India.
Into a brave new India.
Happy Independence, my friends.
While we celebrate our independence,
we must not forget about our brothers and sisters who gave their lives for our independence...
our homes, villages and everything is safe and secure now,
but so many lives have been sacrificed.
Their loved ones, families have lost everything.
So, let us join our hands and pray for them today.
For all those who had to leave their land,
who had to burn their belongings,
who had to leave their homes.
Let us pray, for all those countries,
who lost their independence.
What the priest said is right.
We must pray for the people, who have left our land.
Countrymen.
It's easy to say we are countrymen.
We are Indians.
But we have always been treated as strangers.
They keep saying that we should go to Pakistan.
And the priest wants us to pray for them.
Goodbyes
Have you heard Shauq Bahraichi's verses, uncle?
You?
My father often recites it.
Would you like to hear?
An owl is enough to destroy a garden.
What will be the fate of the garden...
...if there is an owl on every branch?
Did you understand, uncle?
If you spread hatred like an owl...
...what will happen to this garden?
I will take your leave.
Aren't you the priest's son?
What's your name?
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam.
Goodbye.