The Kerala Story
The Kerala Story is an Indian Hindi-language film directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah.The plot follows the story of a group of women from Kerala who converted to Islam and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The film has courted controversy for falsely claiming that thousands of women from Kerala were being converted to Islam and recruited into ISIS.Political parties in Kerala allege it promotes the Sangh Parivar's agenda.
The Kerala Story
Theatrical release poster
Directed by. Sudipto Sen
Written by. Suryapal Singh
Sudipto Sen
Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Produced by. Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Starring. Adah Sharma
Cinematography. Prasantanu Mohapatra
Edited by Sanjay Sharma
Music by. Viresh Sreevalsa
Bishakh Jyoti
Production Sunshine Pictures company.
Release date. 5 May 2023
Country. India
Language. Hindi
Budget. ₹40 crore
Box office. ₹8.03 crore
The film stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani. It was released on 5 May 2023.
Cast
Adah Sharma as Shalini Unnikrishnan / Fatima Ba
Yogita Bihani as Nimah
Sonia Balani as Asifa
Siddhi Idnani as Geetanjali
Devadarshini as Shalini's mother
Vijay Krishna
Pranay Pachauri
Pranav Misshra
Premise and factual accuracy
The Kerala Story is captioned as being based on a real-life incident, while the reliability of the statistics shown are not backed by any real evidence.
The teaser, released on 3 November 2022,[10] featured Adah Sharma playing the character of Fathima Ba — a Hindu Malayali nurse — who had converted to Islam and joined the ISIS, before ending up in an Afghan jail.[9] She identifies to be one of the 32,000 girls, from the Hindu and Christian communities, who are missing from Kerala and have been recruited to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) after being converted to Islam. The claimed figures are widely inaccurate, being based on mistranslations, misquotes and extrapolations from misrepresentations of unrelated statistics.[4]
The Observer Research Foundation in a 2019 report notes that about 60 to 70 individuals had joined ISIS from Kerala between 2014 and 2018.[11] 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 US Department of State in its 2020 report on terrorism had 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.[5] They were part of a 21-member group from Kerala to join ISIS in 2016, remain incarcerated in Afghanistan since surrendering in 2019.[12]
Opposition
Both Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) — the only two parties to have governed the state since Independence — 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 of defaming Kerala and propagating the idea of "love jihad",[9][13][14] a Hindutva conspiracy theory.[18] 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.[19]
After a Tamil Nadu-based journalist filed a complaint with the Kerala chief minister, by stating that false propaganda is being done against Kerala and communal harmony is being destroyed, Kerala state police chief Anil Kant directed the Thiruvananthapuram City Police to register a case based on a report by hi-tech crime inquiry cell of Kerala Police.[20][21] However, based on legal counsel's advice, as of 15 November 2022, an FIR was not filed.[22] As of 9 November 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.[23] The makers agreed to take down the teaser which created the controversial claim that 32,000 girls were recruited in ISIS.
Production and release
The film was produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, who is also the creative director of the film.[1] It was released in theatres on 5 May 2023.
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