Virus (I) (2019) User Reviews

Mollywood's 'Chernobyl'

[CobertNeede · 7/10 · 8 June 2019]

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.

Excellent !

[jrkraj-50948 · 9/10 · 22 April 2020]

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.

Brilliant.

[Azanspy · 9/10 · 8 June 2019]

Virus is not just one of the best movies of the year, it is one of the best movies ever made in Mollywood history. It is so well crafted doc-fiction. Aashiq Abu delivers the best movie of his career and is simply one of the best directors in India. The movie keeps us thrilled and always triggers suspense and goosebumps. There is no single standout performance as every single actor in this movie was perfect. Kudos to Rajeev Ravi. His cinematography was another level. Sushin Shyam's music was one of the backbones of the movie and he can be Malayalam's Hans Zimmer. Overall, Virus is a perfect movie that everyone should warch in theatres. Mollywood will be proud of Virus. P. S. Audiences may feel a bit lost in the time realtions during the movie but the climax makes all that connections.

More Than a Movie

[jugnunara · 10/10 · 8 June 2019]

A brilliant directorial venture. Informative. Awesome

Fear. Fight. Survival.

[AdhilAramam · 10/10 · 3 July 2019]

VIRUS is an engaging experience, with its non-linear story telling, energetic sound tracks, vivid visuals and most importantly, a golden bunch of cast has made it a great account of the incident that invoked fear in Malabar.

The film throws light at each and every individuals who has played a part in controlling Nipah Virus transmission, and how we were able to survive by working together.

Great Achievement.

Thanks to Aashiq Abu and Team.

Epic

[atomfreespirit · 10/10 · 10 June 2019]

This movie is a beginning for the Indian film industry to try something different.The director explained the real incident in a powerful way with some fiction which made The movie more effective. The whole crew members did a great job and The impact it made in me as a movie lover is big. One of the finest directorial ventures from India. 10/10 for sure

Best movie

[rojithomas-14928 · 8/10 · 8 June 2019]

The great survival thriller, a must watchable motivational movie. The best story and the direction, all the cast teams are acted well. All the very best team #Virus

A poor man's Contagion.

[eldreddsouza · 6/10 · 17 April 2021]

Why does an outbreak movie need to be so character driven? Honestly there are so many characters it's hard to take any of them seriously. It is one CONVOLUTED MESS of a film. It could have been a simple movie which would definitely be more impactful because there are just too many characters who you literally couldn't care less about in this. Also this film IMO tries to be too political. Why the hell do you need to have to include religion and all that bs instead of keeping it real and not having some sorta agenda?

This film has a big cast. I mean Shreenath Bhasi, Revathi and others but they have hardly any important role to play. Feels like they're there only to pull in the crowds. It could have easily done even without them because there are so many characters who have more screen time which also doesn't add too much value.

The ending of the film!!!! What was that? So laughable. They tried to add an ending scene like in the movie Contagion but failed really badly. It didn't make any sense.

I love Malayalam cinema and decided to give this film a shot thinking it'll be a good watch for the times we're in. But sadly, I didn't like and even hated it to some extent. The director hasn't done a good job with this one. Maybe they were in a rush to make a film on this subject before anyone else did it resulting in a poorly made film. Malayalis are good at making films and I'm sure they had potential to make something great but as I said the makers were in a rush and didn't put too much though in the script.

There are far too many long and boring scenes that are too stretched for no reason and the film could easily do without.

You can skip this one.

Don't miss this one!

[bibinbharath · 9/10 · 18 June 2019]

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.

Stands between Drama and Documentary

[SatiagoManez · 7/10 · 10 April 2020]

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.

Malayalam Cinema at another level!!

[nairshruti · 9/10 · 12 June 2019]

Virus is one of the best medical doc-fiction thriller I have watched in recent times.A complete blend of reality not letting it become documentary and fiction which keeps the audience on the edge of the seat.Cinematography by Rajeev Ravi is at another level.Every single actor has contributed equally to make the film a masterpiece.Ashiq Abu should be applauded for his courage to take risks and make out of the box movies.Every malayali will feel the pain and struggle people went at that outbreak of the unfortunate epidemic.Kudos to the change happening in malayalam cinema.

Story of Nipah Virus - Nicely made but could've been better

[saru2020 · 6/10 · 19 January 2020]

The real story behind the Nipah virus but not sure of its credibility since there have been some changes wrt the names of the characters & places involved it seems. 1st half of the movie had introductions of so many characters and hence it was very difficult to even keep track who does what but almost every one of them is linked in some way or the other and linkage/decoding of the spread of the disease was nicely made and delivered in real sense with real facts as if it happened in real life aka with no cinematic or commercial essence added to it, which is the major reason for the movie being slow since the scenes that should've been elevated were not elevated at all, I think music should've played a major role to fill this gap but that have been missed and the explanation of characters with some cinematic feel might've given a better grip to keep the audiences engaged. The fact that even the most popular actors who were seen without makeup where unnoticeable and we could recognize them only after double confirming with the film cast listings, I think this is the only fact that keeps the Malayalam cinema as a unique one.

Not entertaining as a movie

[prasanthmaverick · 5/10 · 30 August 2019]

This movie has hundreds of characters and the maker of this movie expects us to keep track of all the characters who appeared on the screen. The investigation part proceeds in a non linear fashion and on many flashback scenes the date of the incident was not displayed which adds more confusion.

The movie created more confusions than it created fear. BGM, acting, and the way each character is linked with one another are the things that makes this movie watchable. The nipah virus incident reported by the media in real life was scarier than this movie.

While making a movie on a such an incident, the screenplay must be able to bring horrific experience to the audience. But I should say the makers failed miserably in delivering that experience.

A multi starrer movie of the year !

[aiswaryapradeep24 · 9/10 · 7 June 2019]

Aashiq Abu directed Virus is a very engaging film that tells us the behind the scenes of curbing Nipah virus . The cast is worth the mention . Everyone played their roles really well . The research behind this movie's story has to be mentioned . Overall it's an informative movie which you wouldn't regret watching.

Gripping real story of the nipah virus in kerala

[ansafkarikonari · 9/10 · 10 June 2019]

With a star studded cast who gives their full potential and brilliant screen play, Script and direction i can say that this is one of the best indian movies of 2019. Soubin sahir, asif ali and sreenath bhasi gives a full out performance which maybe their best performance yet. The Background score really helps the movie feel more thrilling than it is.

Excellent Medical Thriller

[devikabsree · 8/10 · 22 September 2019]

This is one of the best (medical) thrillers I have seen and also a very realistic portrayal of the characters from the actual virus outbreak scenario based on my reading of news reports ( I had closely followed the outbreak when it happened). The makers of this movie has done a great research before creating this movie and a respect them for that. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie and I will recommend this to anyone who wants to watch a good medical thriller. (One thing I felt that could have been avoided were somewhat gross scenes like vomiting. But then, maybe in a medical thriller - such things are to be expected. )

The story of science and passion defeating a deadly virus outbreak

[siderite · 8/10 · 16 March 2020]

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.

Not so great movie

[danieljames-dj · 6/10 · 12 September 2020]

The movie was good, but it's not so great. I didn't like it much. Many scenes of the movies looked a bit confusing.

Virus - The power of togetherness & team work

[apn126 · 10/10 · 8 June 2019]

Brilliant movie right from the outset. Excellent storyline. Great portrayal of characters by the actors especially Sreenath Bhasi, Kunchacko Boban, Parvathy, Tovino, Rima Kallingal, and Indrajith. The BGM score was awesome.

The movie depicts the collective efforts of the all the people involved in the Nipah Virus attack that happened in Kozhikode. Overall a brilliant movie that showcases how important team effort and togetherness plays a crucial role in such a critical scenario.

Must watch.

My rating - 10/10

one time watchable

[manundr-68857 · 7/10 · 31 January 2020]

Movie was good. but got lag in some point of time. a one time watchable movie

Every malayali should watch this !

[nishasuperboy · 9/10 · 9 June 2019]

A well crafted survival thriller like never before in Malayalam film industry . This movie is about a deadly virus "Nipah" which is transmitted through contaminated food or directly between people. This film all about how these people overcome this situation and survive this . The film takes the audience deep into story such that they can feel every emotions of the characters even though the film don't focus much on any characters . A docu-fiction kind of movie .

Tense Medical Thriller with Powerful Performances

[pchs0114 · 7/10 · 16 August 2023]

Based on the harrowing Nipah virus outbreak, the film vividly showcases the unwavering courage and determination of medical professionals working tirelessly to contain the unfolding crisis. Tovino Thomas and Rima Kallingal deliver standout performances, bringing depth and authenticity to their roles. Abu's meticulous direction effectively maintains a palpable tension throughout the narrative. Although there are moments of occasional pacing issues and some graphic scenes, the film's profound relevance in today's global health context greatly amplifies its impact. With its combination of powerful performances, masterful direction, and an informative yet engaging storytelling approach, this movie firmly establishes itself as a must-watch for aficionados of medical thrillers and those intrigued by real-life heroics and challenges.

Ssssllllowwwww

[alexuno_murray · 2/10 · 29 September 2020]

Slow and boring. Felt like I had been watching for 2 hours, 20 minutes in. Then quit.

#THUMP UP to virus team

[premjithpremjith · 10/10 · 9 June 2019]

The movie was very good and also it create an enthusiasm. The movie tell a complete fear fight and survival of nipha virus affected area and also affected people . The movie create an exact feeling in the hospital and also explain the pain of doctors and nurses in the hospital .#THUMP UP to virus team

Brilliant

[vijaygujjar · 8/10 · 23 July 2019]

#virus A well crafted survival thriller Based on #Nipah. As we all know, this is based on the Nipah virus outbreak in kerala in May 2018. Everyone played there role 👌🏼👌🏼. The screenplay, direction & script is brilliant.