2018 Everyone is a Hero: An exemplary story of human spirit that suffers from lack of nuance

With 2018, director Jude Anthany Joseph, who has co-written the film apart from directing it, opts for a wide canvas to depict the impact of a natural disaster on human life. He tries to string together stories of people from different backgrounds with individual backstories and varied concerns. This helps him create several shocking, scary and moving moments during the film. Having so many characters also means the narrative becomes unwieldy and repetitive, especially in the second half. By then, the film seems to follow the format of showing a crisis, help coming in and crisis averted thanks to a brave man. The whole sequence is repeated several times, running the risk of slowing down the narrative.

The film showcases the rescue operations undertaken by regular folk while the role of administration remains sketchy. 2018 underlines the exemplary acts of real-life heroes and celebrates them. Some are born do-gooders. Some have a change of heart. The film does tend to paint most of the characters in broad brushstrokes as they are shown as selfless or turning into one after a quick transformation.

After gaining widespread popularity as a desi superhero in Minnal Murali (2021), Thomas stands out as the everyday hero. He is endearing and his character is nicely fleshed out unlike others. Most of the other known faces, Kunchako Boban and Aparna Balamurali don’t have much to do. That’s one of the major shortcomings of the movie. While the visual effects and cinematography is impressive, the non-stop loud background score tries to rouse the audience’s emotions. The film would have benefitted by letting go of some of the tropes of mainstream cinema and choosing a more documentary-style storytelling.

Since this is the impression of the Hindi dubbed version of the film, it must be pointed out that the filmmakers need to take necessary steps to make the dialogues sound more natural and less clunky. One thing this film should have definitely got rid of is the fake laughter of children.