For a state that revels in its monsoon bounty, its 44 rivers crisscrossing the verdant vistas between the sea and the mountains, the events of August 15 in 2018 came like a bolt of lightning: the way Malayalis looked at rain changed that night. What the India Meteorological Department classified as “large excess” rainfall, triggered unprecedented dam openings and river breaches, claiming hundreds of lives and throwing millions of others into jeopardy. But what followed was a glorious saga of survival, where people literally waded to safer shores on the back of exceptional camaraderie.
The film 2018: Everyone is a Hero by Jude Anthany Joseph, selected as India’s official entry to the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 96th Academy Awards, is an adept filmmaker’s take on what Kerala went through those days.
The titles roll with sound bites and newspaper clippings about the ‘deluge of ’99’, harking back to the massive flood of 1924 (Malayalam year of 1099). A TV reporter is heard narrating the destruction of the Kundala Valley Railway of Munnar. Environmental destruction, a fear of looming catastrophe, and confidence in modern-era alert systems are brought up before the fictitious village of Aruvikkulam. A clever play of the words ‘Aruvi’ and ‘Kulam’, meaning stream and pond respectively, the name of the village draws attention to the fact that such place names are aplenty in Kerala, pointing to its water wealth. 2018 has two main storylines that meet when this wealth turns into the scourge of Aruvikkulam. But the film salutes the selfless service of the fishermen community, who came forward with their boats and canoes to rescue over 65,000 people stranded in flood-wrecked areas.
The two-and-a-half hour film with an ensemble cast has Anoop (Tovino Thomas) in the lead, who has abandoned his military job out of fear for his life. Anoop is helping out the visually challenged Bhasi (Indrans) run his tea-shop while waiting for a Gulf visa and meets his fiancée, mistaking her first for an Army investigator out to expose his fake medical certificate. 2018 shows the transformation of Anoop into a courageous jawan, saving lives and risking his own. Just like Nixon (Asif Ali), who comes to value his roots by taking part in rescue efforts by fishermen who were hailed as “state’s own naval force” by the chief minister during the Kerala floods.
The movie has heartrending moments of people losing lives and hopes in the flood fury. Dreadful visuals of anguish and daredevilry are accompanied by an ominous soundtrack, making viewers relive the nightmare: an uprooted tree flowing down the raging waters and getting sucked up by an open dam shutter; a family with small children trapped in their house as a landslide engulfs it with slush; a couple holding onto the rooftop with their injured, autistic child as water lashes menacingly beneath them. Many an instance of resilience and compassion is captured and several of them are based on true events: like a north-Indian vendor donating all of his woolen blankets to a relief camp; the youth who volunteered in thousands to reach relief materials to camps and pass vital information on the stranded; a helicopter airlifting a pregnant woman to safety.
A third track is that of an arid Tamil Nadu village on the other side of the Mullaperiyar dam, a perennial spot of contention between the two states. In a poignant contrast to the “nashicha mazha” (damned rain) on the other side of the border, the village gleefully welcomes the showers. But in its quest to be more wide-ranging, the film has subplots of a couple on the verge of divorce and a foreign vlogger making merry amidst the ravage – serving only to lengthen its running time.
As its name goes, 2018 makes everyone a hero. Even a lizard (which has a divine part to fulfil), a fish and a cat get their due share, reminding viewers of the hapless dog and numerous other animals in legendary writer Thakazhi’s famed story Vellappokkathil (“In the Deluge”). The movie rightly acknowledges the role the media played in relaying not only chaos and tears but also solidarity and kindness [although how is the opening of Idukki dam shutters an exclusive story as claimed by channel head Noora (Aparna Balamurali) when she is seen reporting it with more than a few others?]. The control room official Shaji (Kunchacko Boban) echoes the thought of every Malayali during those days: “rain used to refresh me once; now I just wish for it to end.”
However, 2018 cannot be considered an authentic reflection of what transpired in Kerala in the month of August 2018 when the state received 821 mm of rainfall as against 419.3 mm in normal course. The tragedy still raises pertinent questions about dam management and early warning systems but what shows up primarily is the way the state machinery rose to the challenge when flash floods struck. The remarkable way in which the people’s representatives, transcending party affiliations, coordinated relief and rescue remains a lesson in democracy which the movie fails to highlight. Just as nothing more is said about the Kundala Valley hill railway swept away by the Periyar despite piquing viewers’ curiosity. Even so, 2018: Everyone is a Hero is a skilful account of humanity’s triumph over a fateful night when rain, instead of delight, spelt devastation in Kerala.
Rasmi Binoy is a journalist and author based in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
