2018-Everyone is a hero, Review

In the popular series Greys Anatomy, Meredith grey says- "There's an end to every storm. Once all the trees have been uprooted, once all the houses have been ripped apart. The wind will hush, the clouds will part, the rain will stop, the sky will clear in an instant. And only then in those quiet moments after the storm do we learn who was strong enough to survive it?"  And after watching this film, one can realise that humanity will survive..

The film is based on real incidents occurred in kerala back in 2018 when the state experienced unprecedented rainfall along with an abruptly formed low pressure that further worsened the situation. The Government machineries alone couldn't ensure the rescue operation, but people faced this danger with remarkable unity and spirit to save the lives and property in the best possible way. Film is a docudrama of these incidences.

First half of the film is an introduction to all the leading characters and their whereabouts. This portion didn't register the seriousness of what's coming as the people are shown less awared and alert. But the second half exposes the tragic episodes of flooding, landslides and dangers that follows. The film is scripted in such a way that there exists some degree of emotional hook in everyone's character or some interpersonal sense of care and responsibility. It effectively registers the altruistic effort of fishermen in the rescue operations. It also reflects a harmonious society where almost all the characters shown are good and empathetic except few.

Tovino thomas is the man of focus and emerged as a champion of selflessness. He played the character named Anoop, is an Ex-military man who is popularly considered as a boy who next door. Other characters like Tanvi ram, Lal, Naren, Asif ali, Indranz etc were all good in their performance. The movie didnt try to portray anyone as a superhuman and extra adventurous. It simply shows the courage and willingness among the people to help others so that the tagline 'Everyone is a hero " become highly suitable.

Just like every adventure film, in 2018 also , there is immense role for background score and vfx. A boat rescue scene in the first half is a world class sequence, in which some trapped fishermen were rescued by other folks from the mouth of near-reaching cargo ship amidst the gigantic waves and thunderstorms. Flood sequences and it's rescue operations were also made as if it's the exact recreation of those days. 

The film invokes the dignity of labour among fishermen and recognise a sense of self respect in them as a female character named Tina says -" I had never went outside when I was in my home, but I couldn't see happiness there. Here we don't even lock our doors because nobody gonna come and take anything from ourselves. When I call louder, there are people aside to come and ask me what happened. Then ,What's so bad in going to a rehab centres , once or thrice a year.? There We talk, eat together, dance, how great all these are.."

Unlike the film Virus, 2018 shows the effort of ordinary people. There are no Govt interventions and beurocratic decision making process, rescue strategies etc shown. Matching the tagline, the film is more about what people did, not about what the Govt did. It chooses the dark cloudy colour tone to convey the impact of heavy rainfall season. Rain is also a continuous character. The makers have taken care of showing scanty rainfall in the first half and heavy downpour on the second half.

Rating.

Am giving 8/10 for 2018 and I completely agree to the indirect reference made by the makers that "this is the real Kerala story".