The Malayalam Film ‘2018-Everyone is a Hero’ directed by Jude Anthanu Joseph, has been selected as India’s official entry into Oscars’ Foreign Film category.

The movie competed against 22 films in the category which included – Balagam, The Kerala Story, Zwigato and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, Mamannan, Gabbar 2, Story Teller, Viduthalai 1, Vaathi, Dussera, Virupaksha, and Aug 16, 1947 among others.

Film Federation Of India (FFI) made the official annoucement. The Jury headed by Chairman Girish Kasaravali comprising of 16 members including Sreekar Prasad, Rahul Bhole, Shankajeet De, Ashok Rane, Mukesh Mehta selected ‘2018’ as India’s official entry.

The FFI selects the Indian official entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film each year.

Story:

Directed by Jude Anthanu Joseph, the movie had Tovino Thomas, Kunchako Boba, Asif Ali, Vineeth Sreenivasan and Aparna Balamurali in the lead roles.

The story takes place in Kerala during the 2018 deluge where life came to a standstill due to floods.

A TV reporter Noora reporting on scarcity of water in Pondicherry,when one of the villagers Sethupathi hits her car on purpose for parking in between.

Anu and ex military officer currently helps a blind shopkeeper in running his shop and in love with Manju whose recently joined the school opposite the shop.

A fisherman family of Mathachan he and his son Winston survive a storm in the sea and reach the shore,Rameshan who works in Abu Dhabi is not in good terms with his wife but returns back to be with her.

Noora has to balance her life between work and her mother’s illness,Sethupathi is a short temper person and given a job to explode a factory,Anup is soon to be married with Manju,Nixon son of Mathachan is away from his family fishing business and doing modeling and in love with Chandy daughter of a businessman and Koshy a taxi driver given a job to show the city to Poland couple.

All of the individual lives collide when non stop rains arrive in the city leading to floods and the individuals turn out to be heroes in helping the stranded people.

Reception from audience:

The movie received rave reviews from the audience and was seen as an account of the floods that happened in Kerala in 2018.

The film has a strong narration, technically sound and has some superior performances.

‘2018’ presented humanity in one of the best ways possible on screen. Akhil George’s cinematography and Nobin Paul’s soundtrack are the keys. VFX work was also appreciated by the audience.

It may be noted that Last year, Pan Nalin’s Gujarati film, Last Film Show (Chhello Show) was named as India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category of the 95th Academy Awards.

However, The Elephant Whisperers won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short and RRR’s song ‘Naatu Naatu’ won for Best Original Song.