The Vaccine War – Cinematically A Good Film

I saw The Vaccine War preview a few days back and then went on 4-5 days of multi-city tour. I tweeted about the excellence of the film. However, during this time, I did read and watch a few reviews of the film. What most of the reviewers have said is largely true. That is, it is an inspirational film. It is a film that should be shown to children and youth so they get inspired by the work done by our great scientists. It is a tribute to our scientists, especially women scientists; etc etc.

 

To the people who have not seen the film, probably afraid to be reminded of those dark days; I would say, this film is not about claustrophobia of those days. It is about the break out of the sunshine back into our lives and breaking of the shackles of Covid induced locks. It is about the work that was happening behind closed doors and labs about which we were not aware that led us out to our freedom again. Hence, we should confront the past with happy memories, not grief or fear.

 

Now about The Vaccine War as a film.

 

The most enjoyable part of the movie is the taut conflict of two diametrically different personalities – of Dr Abraham – committed but soft hearted and emotional; and Dr Bhargava – a hard headed scientist, a tough task master for whom the ultimate goal is more important than the emotions of the individuals in his team. He keeps his emotions and softness wrapped up in his forbidding exterior. Dialogues and screen play are able to heighten the sequences where the two scientists face, or rather, confront each other. The highlight of the film is the superb acting of the two protagonists – Pallavi Joshi and Nana Patekar. The contrast between the two scientists could not have, probably, been brought out so well by any other duo. The sparks that fly between the two can only be seen to be really appreciated. The two could be in the reckoning for best actor awards this year.

 

Screenplay and dialogue are the strength of The Vaccine War. There are no high flown dialogues. Simple words of simple scientists that touch you because you and me are like that. Crisp words spoken in tense times, when urgency of achieving the ultimate goal of producing an indigenous vaccine overrides everything. A science based film on a boring topic like isolating a virus and then creating a vaccine could be turned into a thriller because of the well crafted screenplay.

 

Some people complain that there is too much of conferencing and less of action. I think, atmosphere of laboratories has been well created. The tough life of scientists has brought to us quite well without any efforts to squeeze tears out of audience’s eyes, though you would feel that you were about to cry; but you hold back just like women scientists hold back their own tensions in real life. When the entire world was locked down, one cannot expect too much of outdoor action. The director could have easily created crowd scenes of crying families and their trauma. But the focus was on science and the positive aspect of spirited fight back of human beings. Yes, some scenes of lakhs of volunteers working like frontline soldiers could have been added to provide a larger canvas to the story. It is noteworthy that nowhere in the world did such large number of volunteers hit the streets without worrying about their own wellbeing. This positive side of the ordinary human beings’ struggle who turned gods to lakhs of suffering families could have complemented the film well. But what is not shown does not detract from what the film shows.

 

Vivek Agnihotri could have definitely scored some brownie points by bringing in the Prime Minister of Bharat who played a critical role of a catalyst by giving every kind of support to the scientists to hasten the process of producing the anti-Covid vaccine. But he seems to have consciously decided to avoid this easier and popular path in storytelling. Despite this, the critics of the film are calling it a propagandist film. They forget that the film is based on the book of Dr Balram Bhargava and not a brainwave of the film maker.

 

Why is telling the story of our scientific triumph a propaganda? World over, every country celebrates its scientists and their achievements. We are the only nation that has not really celebrated her scientists. They have remained low profile, unseen faces till recently. Our minds are so colonised that we shied away from naming our scientists in the field of science for decades even after independence because they were rishis and our erstwhile masters had removed them from our minds. How could we celebrate the rishis that would make us look backward, orthodox and unfashionable not in sync with the ‘modern’ world? Our school and college books never mentioned their names. This film refuses to follow this defeatist mentality. Films like Rocketry and The Vaccine War have broken this glass barrier to self-discovery. OTT series like Rocket Boys too have refused to toe the Left line of taking a dim view of our national achievements and science.

 

 

So, go ahead and watch the film. Get inspired and inspire more film makers to make such uplifting films. You will walk out of the film, feeling elated and positive.