The news of the passing of Dr Jayant Narlikar on May 20 brought back memories the name carried for many Indian millennials. This writer recalled sitting in front of a second-hand television with hazy reception watching the children’s series, Brahmand in the ’90s. An exploration of the cosmos, written by Narlikar, laid the foundation into scientific inquiry for a generation of young viewers. But before he was a scientist, mathematician and polymath genius, Narlikar was also just a young man with a camera.

The big reveal

He was among the kindest, most humane people you could have met,” recalls Prakash Magdum, MD, NFDC. Magdum was heading the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) in 2018 when he interacted with Narlikar.