Virus

Nipah is a horrible thing, it kills 70% of infected yet sometimes it shows no symptoms, a fearsome combination. This film is an investigative drama based on real events from 2018 in Kerala, where this bat virus started to infect and spread in the human population. I believe this is the first Indian film I've seen in decades and I was pleasantly surprised. The actors are doing a good job, the story is scientifically interesting. However, I have to say that most of the characters were not fleshed out well, making it difficult to remember who is who and what is their role in the story.

One of the reasons for tension is the meddling of the Ministry of Defence who wants at all costs to portray the outbreak as a terrorist attack. Medics and investigators must hurry not only to determine the course of the outbreak and identify the carriers in time, but also bring evidence that it wasn't a malevolent act so that the investigation remains in the hands of medical personnel. Another is the way scientists and government people need to approach poor and sometimes violent communities of people who do not trust them.

For a non-Indian, their way of shaking the head when they want to make a point seems a bit silly and it takes out some of the tension in a story that should be by all accounts terrifying. Also funny to hear them go into English, then back again to Malayalam in the same sentence, like it's the most normal thing in the world. And that while discussing between ministry people.

All in all a nice movie, feeling modern, showing both an interesting outbreak story and providing glimpses into the Indian culture.

The movie about the Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala and how it was contained effectively with stupendous work of the officials. Majority of the movie revolves around the process of contact tracing to the first infected person. There is a lot of work done to pace-up the screenplay in this portion but it fails to translate on-screen because there are too many characters involved around it that we lose track of what is happening.Except for Soubin Shahir who scored in the limited frames provided, either those other characters involved should have established well to the audience to follow or the number of characters should have been limited.

Brilliant movie! Hats of to the director Aashiq Abu in keeping it raw and real. This movie brings together a host of well-known Malayalam actors from the current generation angry young man Tovino as the DC to Indrans as the #1 Nipah victim's father and each one of them I believe brought in one of their greatest performances even with short screen times. It truly brings into perspective what doctors and health workers go through on a daily basis and Ashiq Abu and team does justice in bringing this to the fore. The screenplay has brought out the Nipah incident in an eerily beautiful way and the humans emotions have been captured intensely even though it may not invest you deeply into the characters due to short screens times. The bgm was on spot and Sushin Shyam does a great job in bringing out the grim and tense atmosphere, a class effort from him as always. All in all a laudable effort and a must watch movie at the top of an already crowded list of top Malayalam movies this year.

I know that title may seem a little presumptuous, since a movie about the Kerala Floods is in works. But till then, the closest we have to the HBO Masterpiece is Virus. Whatever Chernobyl did to entice the audience, the same has been done in Virus. But less effectively. Whatever Chernobyl did to stay true to the story, Virus had done more. In terms of a disaster movie, Virus wouldn't be your cup of coffee. But for a survival one, it can hold and twist your nerves till the curtains draw.

It just seems that even with it's flaws, Virus could very well be a film that can demand an international audience and not many Indian films can say that with confidence. The Cast was a little too crowded but eventually everybody got their part. Soubin nailed the desperate patient role while Bhasi ( who got the most on screen time) gave a very nuanced performance that one wouldn't expect normally. Parvathy, Rima, Revathy all gave performances that was satisfactory, albiet a little too dramatic.

Sushin Shyam's haunting Soundtrack wholeheartedly deserves a special mention. If there is one thing i wouldn't have changed one bit, it's the soundtrack. And he delivered it without giving any break to the audience.

Aashiq Abu has been having a fantastic plethora of films. And it is no secret that Virus could very well be the next golden crest in his filmography. Short of a few crucial scenes, Virus could very well have been judged as a 'movie that was promising' but Aashiq has done a terrific job in crafting a movie that would've been pretty hard to make.

Real Life Events are always hard to adapt on screen, especially if it is a one that isn't as global as this. So the filmmaker's priority will be to convey the seriousness and soul in the opening scenes itself. And I'm sure the opening scenes of Virus could very well be one of the rarest, yet one of the most crucial openings in movie history.

Brilliant acting , if you watch this in Querentine you can understand even better, If Kerala haven't controlled the virus it's might take unimaginable lives the way they acted in movie you think it's happening in real life , there are no songs or useless things shown in the movie like typical Indian movies does.