2018 movie review: Hollywood-style disaster flick swings between moving moments and predictability

Cast: Tovino Thomas, Kunchacko Boban, Asif Ali, Aparna Balamurali, Lal, Indrans, Aju Varghese, Nileen Sandra, Vinitha Koshy, Gilu Joseph, Sudheesh, Kalaiyarasan, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Gauthami Nair, Thanvi Ram, Sshivada, Narain, Joy Mathew, Pauly Valsan

Director: Jude Anthany Joseph

Language: Malayalam

When the cast of 2018 was first announced, it seemed as if director Jude Anthany Joseph was aiming at an Aashiq Abu style procedural like Virus, that brilliant, clinical account of the efficiency and community spirit with which Kerala stemmed a Nipah outbreak half a decade back. The feeling continues during the opening scenes of 2018 when each of its characters, played by known stars, are being introduced. It does not last beyond half an hour though.

2018 is less Aashiq and more Hollywood in its approach to a real-life drama. Revise that: it is an all-out embrace of a well-worn Hollywood template for disaster flicks, abjuring New Age Malayalam cinema’s famed penchant for understated, slice-of-life storytelling and immersive characterisation. And so, it begins with news of the background leading up to the deluge, introduces us to a bunch of charming people whose fates can be guessed with about 98 per cent accuracy not long into the running time, establishes a person with villainous intent and finds a handsome heroic figure in the midst of several good souls.

Jude has been far more adventurous in the past. In Sara’s (2021), he batted for a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body, through the story of a working professional (Anna Ben) who wants an abortion – a subject that is largely taboo in Indian cinema. Earlier he defied trends by making an elderly lady the protagonist of 2016’s Oru Muthassi Gada (A Grandma’s Mace). Both were endearing, insightful films on believable protagonists written with attention to detail that was designed to draw us into their lives and minds. With 2018, which he has co-written with Akhil P. Dharmajan, he swings in the opposite direction. Here he has prioritised scale and spectacle above all else, creating an entire ensemble of human beings with broad brush strokes and focusing with some degree of depth on only a couple of them. Music is over-used here to evoke melodrama and highlight emotion, and played at an excessive volume, when the film could have rested primarily on the shoulders of a sound designer effectively capturing the rain, the wind and all the other sounds of nature that you would expect in such a scenario.

Now for the good stuff. Despite the predictability in approach, considerable lengths of 2018 are effective, partly because of the luscious cinematography and mostly convincing VFX, partly because we know from media reports and social media accounts that human goodness did indeed prevail during the pralayam of 2018, and partly because a majority of the chosen cast is so appealing in various ways, that if they stood motionless and did nothing on screen for two hours it might still be hard to look away. This star-studded, visually striking film on the 2018 Kerala floods is, thus, intermittently poignant and suspenseful despite its templated format, superficially written characters and decision to avoid the politics of the tragedy.

Tovino Thomas plays the all-round Mr Nice Guy of his town, Anoop, an ex-Army man who falls in love with a teacher played by Thanvi Ram. Bhasi-ettan (Indrans) runs a shop and is one among Anoop’s well-wishers. Bhasi is blind. Asif Ali is an aspiring model who is ashamed of his family background: his father (Lal) and siblings are fishermen. When they visit the home of the girl he wants to marry, the potential bride’s father (Joy Mathew) insults and rejects them for this very reason, because of his own higher social status and bank balance. Kunchacko Boban plays a government official who is anxious for more time with his family. Aparna Balamurali is a journalist who too is swamped by the demands of her job as a news channel editor. Also in the mix: a tour guide (Aju Varghese) whose newest clients have just arrived from Europe, a boy with mental challenges, his parents (Sudheesh, Gilu Joseph), a pregnant woman (Vinitha Koshy) with a little daughter, estranged brothers, and many others.

If you were the betting kind, this would be an easy one, but let’s place a spoiler alert here in the interests of … notsurewhat. (Spoiler alert for this paragraph) I mean, what are the chances that by the end of such a film the siblings will not be united, the Army ex’s training will not have come of use in the rescue ops, the model will still be embarrassed abouthis community, his snooty Dad-in-law-to-be will not have been humbled and converted, and of course, the blind man, the mentally challenged child and the pregnant lady will not have been stuck in desperate situations from which they are rescued by deeds of great daring? (Spoiler alert ends)

This is definitely not the sort of film that has the intellect to treat with empathy a man’s desire to rise above his family’s station in life even while judging him for being judgmental towards them. Obviously too it does not examine the stupidity of a patriarchal social set-up that expects a woman to move out of a comfortable house and into a sparsely equipped home after marriage, and considers a gender role reversal beyond imagination. Nuance appears to have drowned in the floodwaters of 2018 while this script was being written.

The one thing that could not have been foreseen at the start of 2018 is how terribly under-utilised two of its biggest stars, Kunchacko Boban and Aparna Balamurali, are here. Virus’ massive ensemble cast served to underline the fact that every individual on screen played acrucial part in the fight against Nipah – politicians, bureaucrats, medical professionals, vigilant members of the public, patients and others. Tovino’s presence in the film, for instance, underlined the Collector’s significance in this battle, but he was not the only reason why the man was memorable: the screenplay did it. Aashiq along with writers Muhsin Parari, Sharfu and Suhasmade each character played by each star count. 2018 neglects so many in this huge assembly that the casting ends up being a gimmick.

It is also disappointing that Jude, who has given centrality to women in his directorial ventures so far, has nothing for women to do in 2018 apart from weep, call for help and be rescued. The narrative fleetingly passes through relief camps without dwelling at length on how they are being operated. Who was handling the care of the elderly, the sick and children in these camps? Who cooked and cleaned? Not women? Apart from under-valuing these tasks by failing to spotlight them, the film remains fixated on acts of physical bravado by men outside. In this area too it seems to offer only a partial view of reality – stills from actual developments back in 2018 flashed on screen in the end include women personnel in uniform.

The film also neglects the state government’s accountability in the catastrophe, barring brief visits to the publicity and information department to hang out with Kunchacko, and completely ignores the Central government’s obduracy at the time. This might have been excusable if everything else had fallen into place, but it does not.

Despite coming from an industry filled with superlative character artistes who are venerated by the press and public, for some reason the casting director of 2018 picked bad actors for some of the bit parts. The gentleman playing a tourist from Poland tops the list, followed by a police official who reminded me of a little child in a kindergarten play who has no idea what to do with its hands while acting.

The miracle of 2018 came from the general populace of Kerala that was widely reported in the media, including, most prominently, the selflessness with which the state’s fisherfolk offered their services and boats during rescue operations, the places of worship that were opened up to the stranded population, and the voluntary work done by the public and unassuming celebrities. The miracle of the film 2018 is that despite its multiple follies rendering too many passages hollow, there are several during which I could not hold back my tears as humanity and decency flooded the screen.

When a family of fishermen gets the priest in their church to reach out to the community, when those fishing boats first turn up in the floodwaters, when Tovino’s Anoop redefines selflessness, you don’t need a background score to manipulate the audience. These beautiful moments are made all the more heartwarming by the awareness that real people did those things. Now if only the team of 2018 had realised that that is all they needed…

Rating: 2.5 (out of 5 stars) 

2018 is in theatres

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial