A disaster film as it really happened set during the 2018 Kerala Floods where people from all walks of life were taken by surprise and forced to face the catastrophic consequences of climate change. Their collective efforts to survive the calamity take the audience by storm and rivet them to their seats.
The director Jude Anthany Joseph actually lived through the floods. What he told us was that he was at home with his parents when they heard the water rising. They said they would stay but he went to his sister’s. When he returned home, it was flooded. His car was washed away, the streets were a stream. The roads were blocked and he stayed at a hotel and spent the whole night thinking life was over. Luckily during the seven days it lasted, his wife and children were away at a wedding. They all survived and he is here to share this story with the world.
Watch the trailer here.
As I was reading the newspapers and watching the news videos, I saw a great story in the success of Keralites standing together to fight this disaster. It was a great story of humanity saving each other. The army and the police were powerless, but the fishermen took to their boats and rescued as many of those stranded in their homes as possible.
It was after the L.A. screening by JJ PR that he told me how it was all shot on a set. He built a tank and filled it with water from the river. He built 16 houses with facades which he put into the tank. A house of three floors is depicted as getting flooded floor by floor. He did this by putting each floor in the water, so that when the scene with the couple in the attic up to their noses in water by the time they were rescued (or not), only the top floor was placed in the tank.
2018: Everyone Is A Hero is so masterfully handled that you would think it took many millions to make. But it is a truly independent film. All this was done on a budget of US$3 million!
The film’s great production quality can compete with any other film in this category. In fact it can almost compete with the renowned Roland Emmerich disaster movies whose budgets are in the hundreds of millions.
Most of the 129 actors were professionals and, like the producer as well, were all victims of the flood. The lead character in the film actually did die.
“The idea was pure and sincere. Maybe that is the reason it came out well. And it is the people of Kerala who made the film a huge success, I could see the claps and tears in the cinema halls when the film was released,” Joseph said. With a box office take of $25 million, 2018: Everyone Is A Hero is the highest grossing Malayalam-language film of all time.
“It is a global topic. People from different parts of the world are suffering from disasters like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes etc. and the people will relate to the characters,” Joseph said. “People must act together across the globe by seeing themselves as a part of nature (and its disasters). Humans and nature are one.”
The film was released May 5 in India and U.S. It will be re-released in the U.S. Sony (India) saw it before it was finished when they picked up all rights and partnered with his team on the production. Sony has worldwide rights.
India has been submitting to this international film category since 1957 and has been nominated three times: for Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay(1988); and Lagaan (2001). Its 2022 entry Last Film Show was shortlisted, but did not score a nomination. India is yet to win the category. However RRRwas the 2023 Oscar Winner in the category of Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) by M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose for the song “Naatu Naatu” and the winner of 2023 Winner Critics Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
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