The Kerala Story: Controversial Film
The Kerala Story is an Indian Hindi-language film directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. The movie’s plot follows a group of women from Kerala who are converted to Islam and join the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). However, the film has faced significant controversy for its portrayal of itself as a true story and its claims that thousands of women from Kerala are being converted to Islam and recruited into ISIS. This controversy has led to criticism from political parties in Kerala who allege that the film promotes the Sangh Parivar’s agenda.
The Kerala Story film stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani and was released on May 5th, 2023. However, the film’s premise and factual accuracy have been called into question, with the statistics shown not being backed by any real evidence. The teaser released on November 3rd, 2022, features Adah Sharma playing the character of Fathima Ba, a Hindu Malayali nurse who had converted to Islam and joined ISIS before ending up in an Afghan jail.
The claimed figures of 32,000 girls from the Hindu and Christian communities being recruited to ISIS after being converted to Islam are widely inaccurate, being based on mistranslations, misquotes and extrapolations from misrepresentations of unrelated statistics. According to Indian government figures, not more than a total of 100 – 200 Indians had joined the organization over the years, one of the smallest figures of any country with a substantial Muslim population.
The events portrayed in the film ( The Kerala Story ) 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 to join ISIS in 2016 and remain incarcerated in Afghanistan since surrendering in 2019.
Opposition to the film has come from the Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist), who object to the release of the film (The Kerala Story) for propagating communal misinformation. They have further alleged that the filmmakers are promoting the agenda of the Sangh Parivar of defaming Kerala and propagating the idea of “love jihad,” a Hindutva conspiracy theory. The Kerala state police chief has directed the Thiruvananthapuram City Police to register a case based on a report by hi-tech crime inquiry cell of Kerala Police. However, as of November 15th, 2022, an FIR was not filed based on legal counsel’s advice. As of November 9th, 2022, the film is subject to an investigation.
In conclusion, The Kerala Story has become controversial film that has been criticized for its factual inaccuracies and promotion of communal misinformation. While the film claims to be based on a true story, the reliability of the statistics shown in the film is not backed by any real evidence. The controversy surrounding the film has led to opposition from political parties in Kerala, who allege that the film promotes the Sangh Parivar’s agenda.