Virus (2019)

Works mostly because of the sheer conviction with which it was made. You can't help but admire the sincerity, the diligence and the hard work that must have gone into making Virus happen, and it makes you respect not just the people whose stories it attempts to show, but also the people responsible for ensuring that these stories are preserved for posterity. 

The first thing that I appreciated about the movie was the background score. Not only does it fulfil its task of not allowing your attention to wander elsewhere, it is also stupendous on its own. It really makes you alert to the proceedings of the film from an early point itself, and Sushin Shyam and Ajayan Adat deserve full credit for their work. The second thing was the community feeling that pervaded the narrative. Having lived through the Great Coronavirus Lockdown of 2020, a period which was characterised by a confused and lonely feeling for me for the most part, and staring straight at the Yet-To-Be-Determined-Coronavirus-Situation-of-2021, it warmed my heart to see how the characters in the movie try to overcome the alienation that such a situation necessarily warrants and still be there for each other, be they friends, family, care-givers or strangers. It's a beautiful ode to humanity, the invisible ties that do bind us to each other, and how we show up even in the worst of times. The third thing was the amazing cast- each and every member seemed capable of overshadowing the rest, but they all harmonised together so beautifully and so well. Special mentions to Parvathy, Kunchacko Boban, Tovino Thomas, Sreenath Bhasi, Joju George, and Madonna Sebastian. 

However, not all was hunky-dory with the film for me. The one thing that stood out almost aggressively, was the progressive deterioration of the character played by Revathi. What in the feminist hell was that all about? Even if you keep the real-life figure of Shailaja Teacher aside, you can't help but cringe at how badly that character and her trajectory is written. How is it that the movie made it look like she, the Health Minister, was in the topmost position in the political hierarchy? Why was the Chief Minister never brought in? On top of this, the character was written and portrayed as extremely vapid- she barely had any insightful comments to make in the meetings, and was shown to be more occupied with her political legacy than with the well-being of her people. To make matters worse, her name was barely ever mentioned. I had to actually go on the movie's Wikipedia entry to see what her name was. What all of this achieves is the complete erasure of the individuality and hard-won power of that character, and instead relegates her to the trope of "just another politician". As everyone and their grandma knows, being a woman in India is hard, and to be a woman politician in India is harder. We barely have any representation anywhere, and for a film that is otherwise nothing short of brilliant in other aspects to do such an unjust portrayal of arguably its most powerful female character is nothing less than shameful and an utter disgrace. And of course, stinks of some well-boiled misogyny, because why not. I want to say that the characterisation of other women in the script was decent, but after thinking so hard about Prameela (Revathi), maybe not.

In conclusion, even though it's not a perfect film, it's certainly one worth watching, especially in the times we are living in currently. Maybe along with all the other tasks the Supreme Leader made us do in early phases of 2020 lockdown, he should have made watching this movie mandatory too. 

PS- Revathi should have refused to say that speech in the end.