MOVIE "THE KERALA STORY"-2023

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

The Kerala Story is a Hindi movie released on 5 May 2023. The Kerala Story’ is centered around the alleged radicalization and conversion of young Hindu women to Islam in Kerala, after which they are forced to join ISIS. The film states that it’s a true story of three young girls from different parts of Kerala.

The film director Sudipto Sen and producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah starring Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani also insisted that ‘The Kerala Story’ is based on true events.

The Censor Board had issued an ‘A’ certificate to the movie and reportedly deleted 10 scenes, including an interview with a former Kerala Chief Minister. The movie has been facing significant criticism from the Left government and Congress demanding a ban on film screening in the state.

This article discusses the controversy revolving around “The Kerala Story”.

The controversy around ‘The Kerala Story’

The film is based on the 2016 Kerala case (Hadiya Case) where many girls went reportedly missing and were converted to Islam to join ISIS. Based on religious conversion, the Hindi film reportedly claimed 32,000 women were converted to Islam and many were taken to IS-ruled Syria. The critics accuse the filmmakers of erroneously labelling Kerala a terror hotbed and promoting Islamophobia. They demand data-oriented proof to support the claims made against Kerala or so to confirm that many women underwent a religious conversion.

The issue reaches Supreme Court.

Many petitions against the film’s release reached the Supreme Court on grounds of “worst kind of hate speech” and “audio-visual propaganda”, but the SC has refused to interfere in the matter.

The Supreme Court refused, saying, “There are varieties of hate speeches. This film has got certification and has been cleared by the board” and also added that “it’s not like a person getting on the podium and starts giving an uncontrolled speech. If you want to challenge the movie’s release, you should challenge the certification and through the appropriate forum,”

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the filmmakers, accusing it of “propaganda” by “the Sangh Parivar”.

K Surendran, who is the state unit chief of the party, denied ‘The Kerala Story’ having any Sanghparivar connection. He said a movie should be considered as a movie and freedom of expression can’t be selective. If approved by the Censor Board of India, the movie can be screened. It is not being played in the party offices of the Muslim League or DYFI, Surendran was quoted as saying by the Mathrubhumi.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor accused the filmmakers of indulging in “gross exaggeration” and “distortion” of the reality of Kerala.

He tweeted “Let me stress, I am not calling for a ban on the film. Freedom of expression does not cease to be valuable just because it can be misused. But Keralites have every right to say loud & clear that this is a misrepresentation of our reality,

He also tweeted Rs. 1 crore to anyone who can prove that 32,000 women in Kerala were allegedly forced to convert to Islam. As per the film’s plot, around 32,000 women in Kerala were converted to Islam and many were taken to ISIS-ruled Syria when the terror group bragged about its power, but some say the number is 3, not 32,000 which became the major point of controversy.