As all of you would be aware, the Medical community has been rattled by the constant attacks that relatives of patients inflict on them if the treatment doesnt pan out in the manner they expected. It's absolutely outrageous to say the least & it's high time that authorities adopt a rigid stand against it so that doctors can discharge their duties to the best of their abilities without having to fear for their well being. Surprisingly, many people tend to forget numerous occasions where the selfless service of the Medical community has averted major tragedies. One such incident was the Nipah virus attack that broke out in Kozhikode last year, but a concerted effort of a host of individuals both from medical & non-medical sectors ensured that the death toll were kept to a minimum. Aashiq Abu has tried to re-create this event in his latest movie "Virus" that features a galaxy of stars. Invariably real life events gets way too dramatized in celluloid that it loses its soul, so does "Virus" also become a victim of that???
Aashiq doesnt waste time to set the stage as the audience is thrust right into the middle of the sequence with the focus being on Dr. Abid's (Sreenath Bhasi) busy casualty schedule at the Kozhikode Medical College. One of the patients that he had attended to had presented with symptoms of fever, vomiting & headache which progressively worsened in quick time. At around the same time, Dr. Salim (Rahman) of Baby Memorial suspects one of his patients to be infected with Nipah which is confirmed by Dr. Suresh Rajan (Chackochan) of Manipal Institute of Virology. The number of patients with similar symptoms steadily increases & it becomes evident that it is the outbreak of an epidemic. The Health Minister C. K Prameela (Revathi), collector Paul Abraham (Tovino Thomas) & district health department swings into action in the hope that they can rein in the disease before it wrecks havoc. How exactly they manage to do it with the support of the doctors, community workers, nurses, drivers etc forms the crux of the movie.
A couple of years have passed since Aashiq has called the shots with the impressive "Mayanadi" being his previous venture. His latest is undoubtedly his best creation to date where he has cleverly cast a plethora of stars & yet made sure that each one had a meaty role that was integral to the story. Hats off to Muhsin Parari, Sharfu & Suhas for their exceptional writing skills that keeps us hooked to the tension & fear that is created as Nipah proves to be too strong an adversary. There is absolutely nothing that I dont like about the movie as everything seems to gel so well & the manner in which they try to identify the index patient along with the source is extremely well depicted. The back story given for each patient & how he could have spread the disease is a painstaking exercise for the writers, but they have done it systematically & without exhausting the audience. Kudos to Sushin Shyam's minimalistic music which strikes the right chords & Rajeev Ravi's cinematography was excellent as always. In the performance department, each & every artist (Chackochan, Sreenath Bhasi, Tovino, Joju, Rima, Revathy, Parvathy, Indrajith, Poornima, Asif Ali, Rahman, Soubin etc) has done their part brilliantly and hence it's hard to pinpoint as to who was the best among them. The most befitting reward for this ensemble cast will be to award all of them for the best performance
Verdict: It's undoubtedly one of the finest Malayalam movie that I have watched. Both the cast & crew have done praiseworthy work & deserves applause for their brilliance. I kind of felt that Soubin's part pretty much stretched the movie a bit too much, but still the manner in which it was linked to the main thread was interesting. This is a must watch movie & you can rest assured that it will be a worthwhile viewing experience!!!
Rating: 4.75/5
Regards...Ben
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