"The Kerala Story" is a unique Indian Hindi-language drama film that was released in 2023. Directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the movie features a talented cast including Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani. The film revolves around a group of women from Kerala who are coerced into converting to Islam and joining the Islamic State militant Islamist group.
Set against the backdrop of the love jihad conspiracy theory, which falsely claims that thousands of women from Kerala have been converted to Islam and joined the Islamic State, the film explores the harrowing journey of Shalini Unnikrishnan. Shalini, portrayed by Adah Sharma, aspires to become a nurse but is abducted from her home and manipulated into joining ISIS, ultimately ending up imprisoned in Afghanistan.
"The Kerala Story" was released in theaters on May 5, 2023, and despite its commercial success as the second highest grossing Hindi film of the year, it received predominantly negative reviews from critics who characterized it as Islamophobic propaganda. The film garnered attention during the Karnataka assembly election, where the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heavily promoted it as part of their campaigning efforts, although they eventually lost the election.
Controversies and protests surrounded the film, particularly in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.The Indian National Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) criticized the filmmakers, alleging that their work aimed to tarnish the state's image and advance the objectives of the Sangh Parivar. Litigation was also involved, leading to the removal of promotional materials containing inaccurate figures regarding forced conversions. Director Sudipto Sen eventually admitted that the film was a fictionalized portrayal of real-life events.
While the film touched on real accounts of women from Kerala who converted to Islam and joined ISIS, the claimed figures presented in the movie were wildly inaccurate. Both the Observer Research Foundation and the Indian government confirmed that the number of Indians joining ISIS, including those from Kerala, was much lower than depicted in the film.
"The Kerala Story" faced a mix of support and opposition from different political factions. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its associated organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), supported the film, using it for political messaging during the Karnataka assembly elections. On the other hand, parties like the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Indian National Congress criticized the film for spreading communal misinformation.
The film's release prompted public protests, particularly in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It also faced bans and litigation attempts, with petitions filed to ban the film on the grounds of promoting communal disharmony. While some courts declined to hear the petitions, the filmmakers were required to remove promotional materials that made inaccurate claims about forced conversions. The government of West Bengal initially banned the movie, citing adverse intelligence reports on increased communal tensions, but the ban was later stayed by the Supreme Court with the addition of disclaimers.
0 Comments