Director Sajeevan Anthikad believes that Jude Antony's film '2018' is the most priceless gift given to Kerala. He expressed that the film showcases the proper use of freedom of expression, and in his opinion, this is the real Kerala story.
In his words, "Can anyone forget the year 2018, which witnessed the people of Kerala grappling with the rains and struggling to survive? Hence, it is proven that when hit by a calamity, Kerala will stand together. But one had to experience that feeling. Earlier, there were many films from the T-Damodaran-IV Sasi collaboration, such as 'Ee Nadu' and 'Angadi,' that featured most of the actors from Malayalam cinema, and all of them had equal importance."
"'2018' is also such a star-studded film. You can see familiar faces like Vineeth, Aparna Balamurali, Asif Ali, Kunchacko Boban, Joy Mathew, Indrans, Lal, Siddique, Naren, Aju Varghese, etc. And they all gave their best. The script was amazingly decentralized, and the narration started from various junctures. Though it is typical of T-Damodaran's format not to centre his plot around one individual, it requires a lot of skill to nail it. Usually, no one is willing to shoulder such a burden. When the canvas gets bigger, the narrative tends to go haywire."
"However, in '2018,' we see how they have successfully been able to pull it off. Although Tovino's character is similar to others, his connection with the audience made this an even better success. Tovino was so natural that it made us overlook all the other characters in the film. I am not going to write what I exactly felt about Tovino's performance in the film as it will be a spoiler. The making was excellent, and I can't find fault with the background score, editing, or cinematography."
"'2018' is the most priceless gift Jude Antony gave to Kerala. The only good thing the politicians who are always baying for some kind of ban would be to bring the crowd to the theatres. Our politicians fear that the secular fabric of our state will be destroyed if someone comes up with a film about Malayalees recruited to Syria. All such theories will be deflated by a film called '2018'. Abuse of freedom of expression should be addressed by the positive use of freedom of expression, not by prohibition. I can say for sure that '2018' is the real Kerala story. (Usually, I hear claps from the film festival crowd in a theatre. But after a long time, I heard claps in a theatre)."
