When Indian researchers raced against the clock to introduce Co-vaccine, a locally produced vaccine, at the height of the Covid pandemic, there is a tale to be told.
That tale may have needed to be shared as soon as possible because the recollection of the anxiety, uncertainty, and desperation of those times is already going away and an election is approaching.
As the saying goes, someone else will tell your tale if you don’t. Thus, it has fallen to Vivek Agnihotri, the raconteur of the moment, to once more serve as the megaphone of our times.
Compared to other areas Agnihotri has quietly explored recently, most notably in The Kashmir Files, this one is less dangerous.
Few people would bemoan the untarnished heroes of The Vaccine War: the scientific community that toils away in silence in thankless jobs and labs, even if they talk the talk that the government does, from the emphasis on “Atmanirbharta” to the criticism of “anti-India ecosystems” to the finger-pointing at China.
The Vaccine War, in actuality, has a lot to recommend it. As the first “bio-science film” made in India, it fearlessly spends a lot of time discussing scientific terminology and taking place in the bare-bones NIV (National Institute of Virology) facilities rather than using experiments on mice and monkeys.
There is no attempt to enliven the research or flare up the heavily anesthetized settings where innovations are generated. Instead, Agnihotri’s dedication to his topic, which was undoubtedly made possible by the government’s full cooperation and access, steers the movie frequently in the direction of a public service broadcast.
The Vaccine War also largely ignores the suffering of Covid’s residents, the difficulties of the immediate lockdown (which is portrayed as a proud accomplishment).
The deaths brought on by a lack of beds and oxygen, and the government’s attempt to catch up (the only party to receive blame is the Delhi government, “for procuring four times its requirement of oxygen”).
The search by NIV teams for rhesus macaque monkeys to conduct trials on is the only genuine revelation as the movie lists every government accomplishment of the time in the dense Nagpur woods.
Based on a book written by Balram Bhargava, the man at the center of the Covid scientific rollercoaster, the film uses names of real people from the ICMR and NIV, which is unusual for a mainstream Bollywood production and perhaps indicative of its official source.
The tale of Bhargava and his team, which was made up primarily of loyal, hardworking women, is worth telling, and this fact elevates
The Vaccine War. Patekar’s portrayal of Bhargava, who lives simply and avoids using a smartphone and promotes eating without a spoon because “fingertips trigger hunger,” fits the mold of the improbable, self-effacing heroes that movies enjoy.
Bhargava also adds ghee to food for “intelligence,” among other eccentricities.
But the women of The Vaccine War bring clarity and nuance to the tale of Covaxin. Joshi plays NIV Director Priya Abraham, juggling her son’s wedding plans with isolating SARS-CoV2.
Bhattacharya plays Pragya Yadav, the head of the NIV lab that will accomplish this, who will ask her neurosurgeon husband for assistance at a crucial point in the monkey trials.
Oak plays ICMR epidemiology specialist Nivedita Gupta, who must push away her crying, medically depressed son to get back to work. All three of them—especially Bhattacharya—perform their jobs well.
Even if Bhargava gets to give a speech about it, the women—and there are others—are just being who they are and going about their work just like everyone else, neither dressed up nor down.
As we celebrate the accomplishment of their ISRO colleagues, the involvement of women scientists to the Covid project is a reality that needs to be highlighted, and the film does so.
After the NIV had done the kick-off, Bharat Biotech has reason to be miffed because, although making a big role to the creation and distribution of Covaxin, it scarcely received a mention.
Yes, Abraham did call SARS-CoV2 “majestic” in Bhargava’s book when she first examined it under a microscope because of the crown on its surface—a scene that was reenacted in the movie.
The media, or more especially a journalist named Rohini Singh Dhulia who works for “The Daily Wire,” is the only clear-cut bad guy in The Vaccine War and he shares Agnihotri’s viewpoint.
She will do whatever to paint “the government” in a negative light, including collaborating with “big pharma,” charging for images of the dead and dying, and using a “toolkit” provided by her “foreign” financiers.
If Bhargava adores his Indian staples, Dhulia only consumes “vegan” food, a fact that was included for no discernible purpose.
There is only one appearance of the nameless prime minister, who is defined by his cabinet secretary (Kher) as a man who seeks outcomes, does not value language, and believes in science. Bhargava and his group proclaim that this is the first time that they have received support.
