The Film Federation of India has announced that Malayalam film 2018, will be India’s official entry to the Oscars. The movie starring Tovino Thomas, Kunchacko Boban, Aparna Balamurali, Asif Ali, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Narain and Kalaiyarasan directed by Jude Anthany Joseph was on the devastating floods of Kerala in 2018 that took hundreds of lives and destroyed thousands of houses and property.
“The jury has decided to fight global warming, through its selection. Their thinking is to spread the message about the issue,” said Ravi Kottarakara, president of the Film Federation of India.
“The film, we believe, is a metaphor for the battle between nature and humankind,” said Girish Kasaravalli, the chairman of the selection committee, adding, “If we look at it as a metaphor, it is not only about Kerala floods or Chennai floods. It is a metaphor for what our notion of development is.”
The film 2018 showed the unity of Kerala at the time of a disaster, the sacrifices and rescue work during the floods. The film has many prominent actors in the industry playing roles of the real life heroes that commoners turned out to be at the time of a disaster. Fishermen who had come out with their boats to rescue stranded people, risking their own lives, were played by actors Lal, Asif Ali, and Narain. Actor Tovino Thomas, who was appreciated for his services during the 2018 floods, plays an important role of a man who ran away from the Indian Army in fear but ends up risking his life to save others during the flood. Kunchacko Boban, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Tamil actor Kalaiyarasan, and Aparna Balamurali also appear in prominent roles.
The film, interestingly, came out on the same day as The Kerala Story, a Hindi movie that critics found to be a propaganda against the state of Kerala and Muslims.
The film was chosen by the selection committee out of a final list of 22 films. The list includes 11 Hindi movies including Kerala Story, The Vaccine War, four Tamil films were also on the list, including anti-caste director Mari Selvaraj’s Maamannan and Viduthalai - Part 1, directed by Vetrimaaran. Both films take a strong stance against institutional casteism. Four films from Telugu were on the list as well. Interestingly, Dhanush-starrer Sir/Vaathi, released in Tamil and Telugu were both on the list.