Noah’s Ark in God’s Own Country

From Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s 1990 classic Mathilukal to the recently released Mahesh Narayanan’s Ariyippu, Malayalam cinema has always left its mark in the international film circuit. India too is finally waking up to this fact by choosing 2018: Everyone is a Hero, a disaster drama about the devastating 2018 Kerala floods, as its official entry for the 96th Academy Awards. But will it make the cut and the Jury nominate it?

Disaster dramas are as old as Hollywood itself. Barring the occasional Contagion (Steven Soderborogh) or Melancholia (Lars von Trier) that offer food for thought, the disaster drama genre is solely intended as a summer entertainer to get the cash registers ringing. With this perception in mind, why would the Oscars Jury consider a disaster drama from India?

For one, 2018 is more than just your run-of-the-mill disaster movie where the protagonist and special effects save the day. Based on true incidents, 2018 avoids the usual disaster movie tropes to tell a tale of how humanity reigns supreme; how people selflessly help others even at the cost of their own lives; how letting go of our preconceived notions allows us to see others in new light; or how our weakness might in-fact be our greatest strength, we just need to identify it.

Another reason that might work in favour of 2018 is its universal theme of man v/s nature where Biblical metaphors add multiple layers to the story.

Kerala is the only state in India to have earned the sobriquet “God’s Own Country” for its lush green forests, scenic landscapes, and pristine backwaters and beaches. By that extension, Kerala is not exempt from God’s (or Mother Nature’s) fury either. Like the devastating floods year after year, landslides, or the virus outbreaks—the first Nipah outbreak in Southern India and even India’s first Covid-19 case was from Kerala.

Despite these misfortunes, Keralites have always risen above their circumstances to prove their mettle as a people of grit, courage, and determination; and 2018 by director Jude Anthany Joseph is one such disaster cum survival drama about the devastating 2018 Kerala floods.

Spanning multiple narratives—from a former military officer who drops out of service, a fisherman’s family who ekes a humble yet graceful living, to an on-the-rocks marriage, a budding TV reporter, and an uptight truck driver—2018 starts off with its tentacles spread all over the place only to organically join these seemingly disparate pieces together in the second half. How people affected by a common calamity look beyond their petty differences, biases, and rivalries to survive against all odds forms the essence of 2018.

One central character who adds gravitas to the story, is that of Anoop (played by Tovino Thomas), the former military officer, who does not shy away from accepting his status as a deserted soldier who was too timid to stare death in the face. As 2018 unfolds, so does the character arc (no pun intended) of Anoop, and we soon realize that there is more to him than meets the eye. Slowly but surely Anoop metamorphoses into the allegorical Biblical character of Noah. Like Noah, Anoop too saves his people from the great deluge in his humble bamboo boat (the Ark) to reclaim his lost pride as a soldier.

But while the Gods spared the Biblical Noah, there is a cruel twist of fate awaiting Anoop, which is where the film slightly switches beats to give us an (depending on how you look at it) unexpected ending. But this is a minor gripe in an otherwise world class movie made on a shoestring budget of ₹30 crores.

Only 3 Indian films made it to the final nominations list at the Oscars so far and none of them won:

• Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1958)
• Salaam Bombay (Mira Nair, 1989)
• Lagaan (Ashutosh Gowariker, 2002)

Like Noah’s Ark, will the 2018 Ark from God’s Own Country also survive the deluge of foreign films and get nominated for Best International Feature Film (and hopefully even win it) waits to be seen. But one thing is guaranteed; the world will finally notice how Malayalam films subtly combine elements of commercial and art cinema with finesse and a human touch, making them a perfect fit for the World Cinema genre.