The Vaccine War review: A tale of courage, conviction and science loaded with ace performances

ashok68 · Oct 1, 2023

The Vaccine War review: A tale of courage, conviction and science loaded with ace performances
By Monika Rawal Kukreja

The Vaccine War review: Vivek Agnihotri's The Kashmir Files follow-up can get one-sided in parts but does a good job of representing the scientists' struggles.

'We can fight this war with science'. 'This is not a bio war, this is info war'. 'India can do it'. These are some of the phrases that we hear throughout The Vaccine War. Based on the book Going Viral by Prof Balram Bhargava, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), this Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri directorial is an attempt to shift light from naysayers to celebrating the efforts of unsung heroes, frontline workers and relentless scientists who didn't rest for months in a bid to create India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin.

The Vaccine War review: Nana Patekar is terrific in a film that is nearly undone by a laborious third act

Directed by Vivek Agnihotri, The Vaccine War is persuasive and entertaining until it begins to feel like a brand statement.

In The Vaccine War, Nana Patekar’s headline act, minimalistic in its geometry but all-encompassing in its impact, holds the frame, even from the corner of a room. (Screen grab/YouTube/PEN Movies)

“Hum process ke hisaab se war ladenge, yaa war ke hisaab se process banayenge,” Bhargava, the Director-General of ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), asks in a rousing scene from The Vaccine War. It’s a war cry tautly masquerading as a scientific query that asks, in the absence of precedence, would the process matter or would the result? Delivered by the film’s unsentimental anchor, it perfectly encapsulates the dilemma at the heart of a film that is, perhaps, too assured of its opinion on the matter. The Vaccine War is a straightforward underdog story, divided into 12 interconnected chapters that are quite simply fragments of a whole. Based on Balram Bhargava’s book Going Viral, it tells the story of Covaxin, India’s first indigenous and much-scrutinized Covid vaccine, developed on a war footing during the dreary days of pandemic. Fronted by a terrific Nana Patekar, a laborious third act notwithstanding, The Vaccine War is an enthralling if wildly aphoristic chronicle of the silent war our scientists waged against an unrelenting enemy.

Read more at:
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/t...undone-by-a-laborious-third-act-11457471.html

ashok68 · Oct 2, 2023

About the unsung Heroes……

The Vaccine War: India can, it did and it always will......

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Someone very rightly remarked about India’s first bio-science movie on X (formerly Twitter), “Do watch to know what these scientists were doing and going through while most of us were ‘busy’ making Dalgona coffee!” While the quip might evince a chuckle now, but if a moment is taken to introspect over the tenacity, intelligence and determination of some of Bharat’s most notable medical scientists, the importance of Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s The Vaccine War is bound to be crystal clear. Even if we discount the technical information and medical jargon dished out in the thoroughly researched work that is now running in theatres, what we mustn’t forget is that there was a batch of dedicated individuals in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, who prioritized the lives of the people of India over their own health and families while diligently devising a way to combat the deadly Coronavirus on a war footing.......

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He effortlessly instills the nationalistic pride in every Bharatiya who must steadfastly believe that India Can Do It!......

Read more at: https://organiser.org/2023/09/30/198662/opinion/the-vaccine-war-india-can-it-did-and-it-always-will/

The Vaccine War review: A tale of courage, conviction and science loaded with ace performances

ashok68

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