The Real Kerala Story: What Worked for '2018', India's Official Oscar Entry?

'2018' is the fourth Malayalam film to be chosen as the country's official entry for the Academy Awards.

Both films were also in the race for India's official Oscar submission – but in the end, the honour went to 2018, making it the fourth Malayalam film to be chosen as the country's entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

The fifth of May this year saw the release of two Indian films that managed to pack theatres for weeks – and incidentally, both of them were about Kerala and its people. While one of them made (unsubstantiated) claims that Kerala was a breeding ground for 'Islamic terrorism', another showed how the people of the state came together to overcome catastrophic floods that – in real life – claimed the lives of over 430 people.

Jude Anthany Joseph's 2018: Everyone is a Hero and Sudipto Sen's The Kerala Story were meant for different target audiences, but they both managed to capture the public imagination in their own ways. 

2018 emerged as Kerala's highest-grossing film ever, crossing Rs 200 crore worldwide, whereas The Kerala Story, with a pan-Indian release, crossed the Rs 300-crore mark worldwide, despite having fewer takers in the very state it was based on.

Both films were also in the race for India's official Oscar submission – but in the end, the honour went to 2018, making it the fourth Malayalam film to be chosen as the country's entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

Several things worked for 2018 in terms of its cinematic success. Its projection as 'The Real Kerala Story' – as Malayalam cinema's answer to the hate peddled by The Kerala Story – also appears to have helped its case.

Firsthand Experience of the Floods

2018 follows the stories of (mostly fictional) people across Kerala during the massive floods of August 2018. Tovino Thomas, Kunchacko Boban, Indrans, Asif Ali, Lal, and Aparna Balamurali were part of its star-studded cast. While the film showed a heavily dramatised version of events during the floods, it naturally struck a chord with the Malayali psyche – because after all, they experienced this calamity firsthand.

In an interview with OTTPlay, director Jude Anthany Joseph said his script for 2018 was basically inspired by the stories of real-life people battling the disaster, which were published in newspapers and shared on social media.

One such storyline was that of the fisherfolk, who were hailed as heroes during the (real-life) floods. Marginalised in society, the fishing community came to the rescue of many living in the posh localities of Kerala – something that an upper-caste Malayali couldn't have imagined until the disaster struck.

The incessant rains, the relief camps, the trauma – they were all too familiar to the Malayali audience. But the director was smart enough not to focus on the destruction caused by the floods, and look at the way people dealt with it instead. There was some level of empathy in the way their stories were told – and as the title promised, everyone was a hero in this film.

In some ways, it was also an opportunity for the audience to grieve what they lost in the floods and hold on to the unity and camaradarie they discovered during that difficult time.

Speaking to The Indian Express, the director said that film managed to have a lasting impact on the audience because it had a "strong emotional core."

"Had we chosen to focus solely on showcasing high-quality flood sequences and landslides, the film might have been praised for its technical brilliance but would have failed to deeply connect with people. The true essence of the film lies in its ability to evoke genuine emotions and resonate with the audience on a profound level."

Jude Anthany Joseph

The Kerala Story & Its Devisive Politics

The Kerala Story, too, played on people's emotions – albeit through a narrative heavily rooted in hate, Islamophobia, and propaganda. And while it claimed it was based on true stories, there was hardly any truth in it. 

You can read our comprehensive review and analyses of The Kerala Story here.

Even before the movie was released, its teaser made exaggerated claims that 32,000 Hindu and Christian women from Kerala were converted to Islam and forced to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). 

For the right-wing and fence-sitting audience outside Kerala, the figure of 32,000 was mind-boggling, but it also fit their pre-conceived notions about the Communist Party-ruled state. But for a Malayali, this claim wasn't as tall or believable as the visuals of an Idukki dam swelling up or their homes being washed away. 

It was unlikely that The Kerala Story would have done well in Kerala anyway, despite the growing right-wing presence in the state. Unlike Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the film wasn't boycotted or banned here, but it played only on a limited number of screens, with some theatre owners even withdrawing screenings. 

Back in May, a prominent film producer had told The Quint: "The response for the film [The Kerala Story] has generally been poor in Kerala. Because there has been this hype around it, some theatres have reported collections. But overall, it has not been good, as far as I know."

A trade analyst, who did not wish to be named, had concurred, saying, "The film had a limited release in Kerala. Ideally, when a movie is running in a limited number of theatres, there should be better collections. It's a basic demand-supply rule. But as far as The Kerala Story is concerned, this is not true."

The analyst had added that "the film came out at a time when other movies – like 2018, Ponniyin Selvan 2, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 – are raking in good money. There's more audience for those films."

"Moreover, the distributors of the film have asked the theatre owners to run at least three shows of the film, and most of them feel that it won't have an audience to fill three shows," he had said.

On 8 May, three days after both films were released, The Kerala Story collected Rs 21 lakh, whereas 2018 minted Rs 9.17 crore in Kerala, as per box office tracker Southwood.

'The Real Kerala Story' Narrative

As The Kerala Story began stirring up controversy, a somewhat religiously tolerant Malayali society did not take it well. And what happened as a result? From film reviews to social media posts, many propped up 2018 as the answer to hate peddled by the Sudipto Sen film.

Movie review headlines of '2018: Everyone is a Hero'. 

(Photo: The Quint)

But truth be told, from a cinematic point of view, 2018 has its share of flaws. Its jumping narratives are jarring and lack coherence. Some of its characters lose purpose very early on in the film – like the character of a journalist that Aparna Balamurali plays. And more importantly, as even the poster would have you believe, most 'heroes' in the movie are men.

There were also some inconsistencies in the way the events were depicted. For instance, while the film promotes religious tolerance and the coexistence of people from various communities, in real life, there were reports of caste discrimination in relief camps and discrimination against the fisherfolk (who were hailed as heroes) – and this was missing in the overwhelming 'Kerala unity' narrative that was presented.

But unlike The Kerala Story, 2018 did not really touch upon politics – divisive or otherwise. Its focus was on people's stories – and that, it delivered. 

And now that the film has gone on to become India's Oscar submission, many on X (formerly Twitter) are even considering this a win for 'The Real Kerala Story', a win against hate.