Drop whatever you are doing this weekend and watch the Jude Anthany Joseph-directed 2018: Everyone is a Hero at the theatres. A disaster thriller based on the catastrophic rains in Kerala in 2018, 2018 — dubbed by people as ‘the real Kerala story’ — is a film about the heroism of ordinary people who came to the aid of those caught in the flash floods, making it a heart-tugging endeavour that will leave you teary-eyed but optimistic.
Disaster movies are rare in Indian cinema. On top of it, they are known more for their grand visual effects in creating the actual disaster than its impact on the people concerned. 2018 turns the disaster movie trope around and puts the focus on the people.
The shorter first half of the movie sets up the main characters, and there are many and in various locations. There is Anoop (Tovino Thomas), an affable guy who is an army dropout and constantly ridiculed for it in his village. There is a fisherman, Mathachan (Lal), and his two sons — Winston (Narain), who is also a fisherman, and Nixon (Asif Ali), who is a wannabe model and is ashamed of his family’s roots. There is Shaji (Kunchako Boban), who works in the government’s disaster management department. There is Sethupathy (Kalaiyarasan), a grouchy and hardened Tamilian truck driver. There is Noora (Aparna Balamurali), the chief of a news channel who raises the alarm about the rains even before the government does. There are more minor characters who also stay in your heart — whether it is Bhasi (Indrans), the village blind man, or Koshy (Aju Varghese), a tour car driver who gets caught in the rains with a couple of Polish tourists.
The script, also written by Joseph, and the direction are very calculated, and every character and every shot shown in the first half of the film are woven into the story that eventually plays out. Be it a shot of a cross on the top of a church high above the village or a big tree in front of a house or a falling tile in a school classroom. There are shots of false rain being used for a shoot in Kerala juxtaposed against the drought in a village in the neighbouring state.
While some central characters get a lot of time, there are many — like Lal’s Mathachan and Kalaiyarasan’s Sethupathy — who get only a few scenes and dialogues to establish their characters, and it is testament to strong writing and great acting that they manage to make you care even within the limited time they get.
And that is where 2018 scores. It makes you care about every individual who is either trapped by the floods or takes on the role of a saviour. Your heart is in your mouth every time Anoop risks his life to rescue someone, or when Mathachan is helping out somewhere. You feel the panic of those who are trapped in the houses as they slowly fill with water till it is claustrophobic. It makes you want to cheer when someone achieves an extraordinary feat. And your heart breaks when someone loses their life in the water raging through the villages or is crushed under collapsing roofs.
The way rain is used as a vehicle for the story is also notable. It starts with light rain that everyone takes for granted in monsoon and as the movie progresses, the rain gets harder till it is like a sheet of water. Credit goes to Joseph, cinematographer Akhil George and the VFX team for realistically creating the floods that wreaked havoc in the state, claiming 483 lives and causing extensive damage to property.
2018 is pretty unidimensional, not getting into the more controversial issues of government response, though there are subtle digs at both the system and the media, or the Mullaperiyar Dam but the film doesn’t suffer for it. What the film lacks is adequate female representation. Most of the women in 2018 are helpless people who need to be rescued. Journalist Noora and Anoop’s love interest Manju (Tanvi Ram) might have a more significant role but fall way short of the kind of focus that the male leads have. The film also milks some of the scenes for maximum effect but thankfully it never tips over to overdramatic.
What makes 2018 a must watch is that at its heart it is about common people — played by stellar actors who make the characters believable — rising to the occasion. When you are making fun of your neighbour’s hapless son or looking down at people from a certain profession, in this case the fishermen community who became saviours for thousands of people, or when your privilege makes you arrogant, remember that these same people might be risking their lives to save yours.
In a time when films are often used for propaganda, 2018 is a welcome change with its heart in the right place. It’s unfortunate that the film has so few shows in the city.
