“The Kerala Story” is a Hindi-language film directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. The movie is about a group of women from Kerala who are converted to Islam and join the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The film has faced controversy over its portrayal of a true story and claims that thousands of women from Kerala are being converted to Islam and recruited into ISIS. However, these claims are not supported by any evidence. The movie has also been criticized for promoting the agenda of the Sangh Parivar, a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, and for propagating the idea of “love jihad,” a conspiracy theory. This article will explore the controversy surrounding “The Kerala Story” and its impact on Indian cinema.
The Premise and Factual Accuracy of “The Kerala Story”
“The Kerala Story” is advertised as a movie based on a real-life incident. However, there is no evidence to support the statistics shown in the film. The teaser, which was released on November 3, 2022, features Adah Sharma playing the character of Fathima Ba, a Hindu Malayali nurse who converts to Islam and joins ISIS before ending up in an Afghan jail. She identifies as one of the 32,000 girls from the Hindu and Christian communities who are missing from Kerala and have been recruited to ISIS after being converted to Islam. These claims are widely inaccurate and based on mistranslations, misquotes, and extrapolations from misrepresentations of unrelated statistics.
According to a 2019 report by the Observer Research Foundation, around 60 to 70 individuals had joined ISIS from Kerala between 2014 and 2018. Indian government figures show that no more than 100-200 Indians have joined the organization over the years, which is one of the smallest figures of any country with a substantial Muslim population. The US Department of State, in its 2020 report on terrorism, documented that there were a total of 66 individuals from India who were affiliated with ISIS at that time.
The events portrayed in the film seem to be inspired by four women from Kerala who converted to Islam and traveled with their husbands to Afghanistan to join ISIS between 2016 and 2018. They were part of a 21-member group from Kerala who joined ISIS in 2016 and remain incarcerated in Afghanistan since surrendering in 2019.
Cast of the kerala story
Adah Sharma as Shalini Unnikrishnan / Fatima Ba
Yogita Bihani as Nimah
Sonia Balani as Asifa
Siddhi Idnani as Geetanjali
Devadarshini
Vijay Krishna
Pranay Pachauri
Pranav Misshra
Opposition to “The Kerala Story”
The Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) have objected to the release of the film for propagating communal misinformation. They have further alleged that the filmmakers are promoting the agenda of the Sangh Parivar and propagating the idea of “love jihad,” a Hindutva conspiracy theory. Responding to the allegations, producer Shah has said that “nothing we say will be without evidence” and that Sen had conducted four years of research for the film.
After a Tamil Nadu-based journalist filed a complaint with the Kerala chief minister, stating that false propaganda is being done against Kerala and communal harmony is being destroyed, the Kerala state police chief directed the Thiruvananthapuram City Police to register a case based on a report by the hi-tech crime inquiry cell of the Kerala Police. However, based on legal counsel’s advice, as of November 15, 2022, an FIR was not filed. As of November 9, 2022, the film is subject to an investigation.
On the day of the release of the film, the Kerala High Court refused to stay the release of the film. It said that the allegations in the film were about ISIS and not a particular religion. Previously, the Supreme Court and the Madras High Court had also rejected similar applications. However, the makers agreed to take down the teaser that created the controversial claim
The film that warns against religious indoctrination ironically employs the same tactic on its viewers. Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story caters to the audience that subscribes to the notion that Kerala is a breeding ground for Islamic State recruitment, where Muslim men lure and convert women to serve as fighters and sex slaves in Syria. The film’s screenplay, penned by Sen, Suryapal Singh, and producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah (also credited as “creative director”), tries to provoke fence-sitters by presenting widely disputed “Facts and Figures.”
Sen previously made a documentary on the same subject titled In the Name of Love! (2022). In The Kerala Story, Sen uses the tools of fiction to support his claim that every interaction between Hindus and Muslims has a sinister agenda. The film employs dramatic close-ups, mournful background music, and medieval violence to create an atmosphere of fear.
Islam itself is the main target of the film, portrayed as a religion that indoctrinates its followers with extremist views. The character of Asifa, played by Sonia Balani, is a devout Muslim who recruits her roommates – a Hindu, a Christian, and another Muslim – into her web. The roommates are impressionable and easily swayed by Asifa’s Theology 101, leading them to wear hijabs and date Muslim men.
Shalini, played by Adah Sharma, is eventually tricked into converting to Islam, taking on the name Fatima, and traveling to Afghanistan with her husband to make her way to Syria. The film depicts unrelenting brutality and violence in Afghanistan, with corpses strewn about the landscape.
The film portrays Islam as a religion that believes Allah is the only true god and that Islam is the only religion that deserves to exist. A cleric advises his followers to use drugs and rape to convert non-believers to Islam, and the film shows this in graphic detail.
The film also portrays places in Kerala like Kasargod and Mallapuram as dangerous recruitment sites. The character of Asifa has a ringtone that says “Allah,” implying that having a ringtone for the god in which you believe is suspicious. A poster in Shalini’s boyfriend’s house says “Nationalism is haram. Muslim is your identity,” and a line of dialogue links the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb to the Islamic State.
The film tries to protect itself from accusations of Islamophobia by portraying every Indian Muslim character as a fanatic. There is even a song lamenting conversion. The film’s characters predict that Kerala is sitting on a time bomb and that “God’s own country will be finished.” The film’s message is a warning against religious indoctrination, but its methods are ironically similar to what it seeks to expose.
How to Watch The Kerala Story online
The movie ‘The Kerala Story’ is currently being screened in theaters. After its theatrical run, it is expected to be released on an OTT platform. If you’re interested in watching it, you can check your local theaters for showtimes or wait for its release on an OTT platform such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, or ZEE5.”