The Vaccine War Star Cast/ Actors: Nana Patekar as Dr Balram Bhargava, Pallavi Joshi as Dr Priya Abraham, Girija Oak as Dr Nivedita Gupta, Raima Sen as Rohini Singh Dhulia
The Vaccine War Director: Vivek Agnihotri
The Vaccine War Release Date: 28 September, 2023
The Vaccine War Available On: Theatrical release (likely to be available on Disney+Hotstar soon)
The Vaccine War Released/ Available In Languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu.
The Vaccine War Runtime: 161 minutes
The Vaccine War Critic Review:
We were enthralled by Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, a multi-layered narration that tracked the scientific brain and the process of making a bomb that took millions of lives.
A vaccine, on the other hand, saves millions of lives.
Uncomplicated and linear in its telling, the multi-pronged war fought by India’s leading virologists is revelatory and riveting which is a tough assignment to deliver when most of the story is set in a sterile laboratory. Count it as writer-director Vivek Agnihotri’s best work so far for stepping into the bland world of bio-science and turning it into captivating cinema; cerebral, emotional and vital.
In a short, opening sequence during the nationwide lockdown, a policeman dismisses and knocks down a virologist for claiming to be a frontline warrior. By the end of The Vaccine War, it is the country’s leading virologists the viewer finds himself crying with and cheering as the heroes of a war well fought but thus far undocumented.
It is a war against a deadly, baffling disease identified as Covid-19, unleashed without warning on a global scale. Dr Balram Bhargava (Nana Patekar), Director-General of ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) is a worried man since January 2020, tracking the new virus with team-player Dr Nivedita Gupta (Girija Oak) and Dr Priya Abraham (Pallavi Joshi) of the National Institute of Virology.
It’s an India without PPE kits or face masks. With scientists who have to miss a crucial flight to Iran because they don’t have Rs 1,00,000 for extra luggage.
It is a war against hurdles, processes and demanding personal lives. A marriage in Priya’s family has to be put on hold, Nivedita has a young son who wants her time. And the team needs monkeys for the next level of testing before human trials can start.
It is a war against time. People are dying, a vaccine must be made and made indigenously.
It is a war against forces inimical to the interests of India as a global toolkit is activated to stonewall the vaccine-making programme, to push the country into buying a foreign vaccine on crippling terms. The forces have enrolled and bankrolled influential voices in the Indian media, in civil society and in politics. Should our scientists be distracted trying to combat the info war, the mass disinformation against the Indian vaccine? Dr Bhargava has to remind an agitated Priya that our fight is to make a vaccine.
Isolating the virus, going into the jungle to find monkeys, battling desperation. One sleep-deprived scientist has a meltdown, holds a Natraja and mutters, “Creation, destruction”. Every step forward comes with its stress and its pressures. Finding Ravan isn’t enough, Ravan has to be killed.
A background score records the gasps of the pandemic.
India can’t do it vs India can do it. Keeping hope alive vs fear mongering to spread panic. Dire predictions of the millions of Indians who’ll die, crematorium reporting to bad-case India.
Backing the scientists fighting impossible deadlines to make the vaccine is a strong leadership that won’t sell the country to the pharma lobby, as monstrous as the global arms lobby. A leadership with the clear message that only science can win this war. A leadership Vivek refers to only through the Cabinet Secretary (a dignified Anupam Kher).
Vivek doesn’t spell it out but for those who remember, there was a time and a section that had sneered at Indians as people who only banged thalis and chanted ‘Corona go away’. Relentless worldwide effort was put into portraying Indians as stupidly superstitious and incapable of scientific temperament.
In his storytelling, Vivek tells it all but doesn’t complicate it with too much. Instead of making a khichdi with too many tracks, Agnihotri simplifies and concentrates all the forces on one journalist: Rohini Singh Dhulia (Raima Sen).
The fight of the scientists too doesn’t go into the personal lives of too many. One Nivedita stands for all the women.
When Dr Bhargava ultimately debates with Rohini at a press conference, it is an entire system that she symbolises.
Tears and cheers mark the straightforward narration. Dr Bhargava is a difficult man to work with, also a leader difficult not to admire. You go wet-eyed at his unexpected gestures of gratitude.
Completely Indian in flavour, a Mahabharat painting in the background, communing with nature for a solution, and just when you wince at the hamsters and monkeys being used for testing, a scientist asks the animals for forgiveness.
Vivek tops his story by casting Nana Patekar, perfect as the strong and silent Dr Bhargava, the right man to lead a team and deliver. Girija Oak who has the best role as homemaker and vaccine maker Dr Nivedita Gupta stands up to the challenge of exemplifying women power. Pallavi Joshi as Dr Priya Abraham who’s pushed by a demanding Bhargava, gives credibility to the women warriors.
The end credits with statistics on India’s astounding vaccine success make you burst with pride.
The Vaccine War – Watch Or Not?: Watch it and cheer one of India’s finest victories.
The Vaccine War Review Score Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (i.e. 3.5/5)
The Vaccine War Official Trailer: