2018 (Telugu) Review

The year 2018 may have been unremarkable for most of us - indistinguishable, really, from the year before or the year after. But for the people of Kerala, 2018 was forever marred by catastrophe. It was the year that a relentless stretch of monsoons caused a statewide spate that swallowed entire towns, swept away homes, and forced more than a million people to flee and take refuge.

Jude Anthany Joseph's "2018" serves as a remembrance of those floods and as a tribute to the spirit of generousity exhibited by Keralites in those days.

Beginning with the statement "Calamity is just news until it hits us", the movie straightaway expresses its intentions. 2018 wants to take into the heart of the crisis, and make us first-hand witnesses to it, and not just distant spectators. To take us beyond the talking heads and fly-by visuals of submerged houses that filled the news stories that the rest of the country saw back then.

In a series of vignettes, 2018 delves into the stories of suffering and survival that played out in August of that year. A family of fishermen leaves its safe harbour and volunteers to do search and rescue. A grouchy Tamil lorry driver (portrayed by Kalaiyarasan) unwillingly picks up hitchhikers to Kochi and undergoes a transformation in his attitude along the way. A government employee stuck at the office managing logistics, watches on TV, aghast, as his newly constructed house gets swept away by the floods. A taxi driver tries to find a safe homestay for a foreign couple, despite doubts about the safety of his own family.

Each character is representative of something good that played out in those hellish days. We see the sacrifices of the fishermen who readily lend their boats. We see generosity in spates in the helping hands that people lend each other at refugee camps. And we see bravery, again and again, particularly from a charming young man, ex-army officer Anoop (Tovino Thomas), soon to be married to a local teacher (Tanvi Ram). In a movie whose very tagline is "Everyone is a hero", Anoop is more a hero than the others, saving a pregnant woman, an autistic child and a blind man, without break.

Except for a few wayward scenes set inside the chambers of government officials, 2018 is unconcerned with the broader context of the floods: Which bureaucratic decision regarding the opening of dam gates may have been ill-timed? Were rescue logistics mishandled? Who is to blame? The movie doesn't dwell on those. Instead, like the frantic thoughts of fleeing survivors, 2018 is only concerned with the immediate effects of the rising waters: How can I survive? How can I help my neighbour? Is my house still standing? And in response, what it finds is the best of humanity in the people of Kerala.

Anthony's lens is unapologetically rose-coloured. In reality, were there miscreants who took the opportunity to loot stores? Were there a selfish few who left behind neighbours and pets? Undoubtedly, yes. In times of crisis, heroes are born, and so are villains. But 2018 has no place for villains of even the most insignificant sort.

Akhil George's cinematography is trained on individual suffering - there is a memorable sequence involving a family down to the last few minutes of breathing room before they drown - but there is an abiding sense of the massive scale of this calamity. Tight shots of submerged homes reveal the hopelessness of the situation. And a roster of naturalistic actors, led by an effervescent Tovina Thomas, further elevates the emotionality of the film.

2018 lacks the solidity of remarkable cinema. Its drama is lax. Its characters are thin. Its story is agenda-driven, even though that agenda may be to eulogize the thousands of tiny acts of bravery and sacrifice that Keralites did during the floods. The movie is thus best thought of as a balm, as a safe and uplifting way for Keralites to relive the memories of that time. And many may find that to be a sufficiently worthy use for cinema.