R Madhavan is reaping rave reviews and accolades for his directorial debut Rocketry: The Nambi Effect in which he also plays the main lead. The film is a biopic on ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan who was wrongly accused of treason but was later absolved of all accusations. During one of the interviews for the film Madhavan recently spoke about IPS officer and currently Joint Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, Vishwas Nangre Patil with whom he was in college and even shared the hostel room. Now, Patil has responded to Madhavan’s kind words during the interview and wrote a heartfelt post about the actor and their days in college.
Sharing a piece about their college days from his book Head Held High, Patil showered praise on Madhavan for being a true gentleman, a great human being and a fantastic actor as he reshared the actor’s interview clip. Patil wrote, “Love you Maddy for these kind words which give me lot of strength and vigour you rock in rocketry! We are proud of you brother! You are our superstar Little nostalgic account about our golden college days in my book, ‘Head Held High!’” Check out the detailed post below:
Along side sharing the video, Patil wrote, "Madhavan, who would later become a Bollywood superstar, was allotted as my room partner in the hostel. He would only speak in English, and was quite unkempt. His luggage, dumbbells and books were scattered across the entire room that I would not feel like entering my hostel room. However, soon the hearty, confident and charming Madhavan became my good friend. Groups of English-speaking girls in college would chase him. Even when surrounded by hordes of girls, he never failed to be a gentleman. He was chivalrous, and never talked to anyone rudely or misbehaved. He would talk to girls, crack jokes with them, spend time with them in the canteen but still appear like a radiant yogi. He was engaged in several extracurriculars and would always try to implement innovative initiatives in college. Both of us had volunteered for National Cadet Corps (NCC). He was sent to England through the NCC’s Youth Exchange Programme. His skill in elocution and debate was par excellence, and would teach hostel students the basics of phonetics. He would teach us how to pronounce the silent ‘K’ while saying ‘thank you’, but we were never able to pronounce it like him."
He further wrote, "We would go to college together, riding double seat on a cycle. Along the way, I hoped to hear him speak in English, so I could improve my diction. Vikas Dhas would often taunt him, saying, ‘Madhya, did a flight carrying the British fly over your house when you were born?’ But Madhavan remained unperturbed—he showed tremendous self-restraint. Not because he was wary of Vikas but because his ideas of life were different. He dreamt big, knew his purpose. His thoughts and actions aligned with each other. He also had tremendous physical and mental abilities. Such was his physical prowess that that none of us were able to defeat him in arm-wrestling contests; it hardly took him a few seconds to put us in our place. Nothing could ever make him angry. Therefore, he was the teacher’s favourite. Madhavan was responsible for organizing the ‘Just A Minute’ competition on the college campus. The idea was that each contestant would speak for a minute on a given topic, without fumbling. Subsequently, Madhavan went on to host the television show Tol Mol Ke Bol and became a well-known Bollywood and Tollywood star. I still remember, in our final year of college, Madhavan, five girls and I were in the running for the ‘Best Rajaramiyan Award’. Madhavan, who excelled in extracurricular activities, was miles ahead of us. But he had weaker academic performance, due to the distraction of the NCC camp in England. As a result, I won the ‘Best Rajaramiyan Trophy’. Even as I received the award, I was aware that Madhavan deserved it more. When I look back, I think that the criteria to award the ‘Best Rajaramiyan Trophy’ was like denying Sachin Tendulkar an excellence award in cricket because he did not clear his SSC examination. Madhavan went on to famously play Farhan Qureshi in the film Three Idiots. Presently, he is trying his luck in Hollywood too. We would meet often when I was posted in Mumbai. He continues to have his feet planted firmly on the ground and his willingness to take giant leaps ahead and fly high with the desire to work hard for success is still intact."
He added, "In my college years, I was too naïve to recognize his worth. I got bored of Madhavan’s high-flying English and stinky room. I gave my bed to Colonel Sable’s son and moved to the adjacent room with my rural friends. Sable didn’t know how to behave. Once, he removed the iron bars from the library chairs and sold them in scrap to buy cigarettes. His behaviour made me so angry that I was forced to give him the Mankar treatment. I demanded that he explain himself. We got in a heated argument and an exchange of blows followed. I beat up Sable. The episode was reported to the rector. At that point of time, soccer matches were going on in the college. The rector gave me my first Yellow Card as a warning and threatened to rusticate me from the hostel if I faltered again. That marked the beginning of my ‘dabang-giri’ (showmanship of one’s rowdiness)."
Rocketry: The Nambi Effect has been doing great business at the box office and has received rave reviews from the critics as well as the audience. Shah Rukh Khan plays a cameo in the Hindi version of the film while Suriya plays the same role in Tamil version. Simran also stars in the film.
(Source: Facebook)
