The much-awaited trailer of Sudipto Sen’s film ‘The Kerala Story’ has finally released on 26th April 2023. Vipul Amrutlal Shah is the film’s producer and creative director, starring Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani in the leading roles.
It is said that this film is based on the true stories of Hindu and Christian girls in Kerala who were first trapped into love jihad by Islamists, and then sent to Iraq and Syria to become ISIS terrorists. The film will be released on 5th May 2023 in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam language.
‘The Kerala Story’ is a representation of the gut-wrenching and heartbreaking stories of 32000 women from Kerala who were radicalized to join the ISIS terrorist group. It is notable that most of these women were converted to Islam from Hinduism and Christianity with the motive of sending them to the terrorist organization ISIS.
In the film actress Adah Sharma is playing the role of Fathima Ba, a Hindu Malayali nurse, who is among the 32,000 women who went missing from Kerala and were then recruited to the ISIS after being forced to convert to Islam.
The trailer opens with the line ‘Shalini Unnikrishnan, a Hindu from Kerala’ and shows Adah Sharma who plays the lead role of Shalini. The next shot shows her being held captive by two gun-laden women in uniforms, belonging to ISIS. The trailer also shows some Muslim men instigating others to get into relationships with women, and hand them over to them, showing how Hindu women are trapped in ‘Love Jihad’.
As shown in the trailer of this film, the victim girls converted via this modus operandi are then trafficked to ISIS-hit middle eastern countries under the pretext of getting jobs or by directly brainwashing them for jihad. The converted girls from Kerala were used by terrorists for various terror activities and also as sex slaves. ‘The Kerala Story’ presents these heinous acts as Shalini Unnikrishnan unfolds her story in front of the investigating officers.
Left-Liberal-Secular-Islamist cabal is against this movie
We have seen how Left-liberal-secular-islamist cabal started making noise whenever any pro-Hindu or patriotic movie releases. We have seen how they have opposed movies such as “Uri”, “Kashmir Files”, and various other movies in the recent times. On one hand, these people support movies which shows Hinduism in wrong way, or demean Hindu gods, all in the name of “Freedom of expression”, but on the other hand they keep attacking any movie even remotely related with Hinduism or showing atrocities against Hindus.
An alleged news fact-checking website Alt-News has attacked the movie and claimed that the writer has misquoted the two former Kerala chief ministers, Oommen Chandy and VS Achuthanandan, while attempting to give his take on the state of affairs in Kerala an air of credibility.
While debunking the claims of the so called fact-checker, the producer Vipul Amrutlal said in front of the media, “The film is an amalgamation of years of research and true stories which have never been dared to be told before, it will uncover many hidden truths that have been hidden for long. It will uncover the dangerous threat radicalization poses to the women of our nation and will create awareness about this conspiracy being hatched against India.
The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), also came down heavily on the upcoming movie saying the “Sangh Parivar was using an even popular medium to humiliate the state and whole community.”
“The film is a bundle of lies. It says 32,000 women were converted and sent to Islamic state-held areas. Its trailer gave enough hints of its content. It is intended to defame the state and community and Sangh Parivar outfits are behind this,” said opposition leader V D Satheesan.
He said this was part of a vicious agenda to sow seeds of hatred and religious animosity but the people of Kerala will stand united to defeat such forces.
The DYFI also said the movie was intended to portray the state in a bad light.
“The Sangh Parivar has been trying to portray the state as the hub of religious fanatics and anti-national forces. This is part of its ploy for communal polarization but this will not work in a state like Kerala. The state will stand as a cradle of secularism and democratic values,” it said in a statement.
The CPM, MP Jhon Brittas wrote to the Home Minister of India, Amit Shah demanding action against the “mischievous” teaser of the film. He stated that the film, ‘The Kerala Story’ is making false claims that 32,000 women from the state were converted to Islam and recruited to the terror outfit Islamic State.
Whereas, the Kerala Director general of police Anil Kant has directed the Thiruvananthapuram city police commissioner to register FIR. The direction was based on a complaint sent to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. A High Tech Crime Enquiry Cell had conducted a preliminary enquiry and a report was sent to DGP.
Opposition and Congress leader VD Satheesan called the teaser of ‘The Kerala Story’ as a “clear case of misinformation” and claimed that the film is made to “tarnish the image of Kerala” in front of other states while also alleging that it is a “Sangh Parivar agenda”.
What’s the truth?
In an 2021 interview with Citti Media – a media production company – the film’s director said that he arrived at that number based on figures given to the Kerala assembly by former chief minister Oommen Chandy. Mr Sen claimed that Mr Chandy had said that “every year approximately 2,800 to 3,200 girls were taking up Islam” and so, it worked up to 32,000 in 10 years.
It found that Mr Chandy in 2012 had said that 2,667 young women had converted to Islam in the state since 2006, without mentioning an annual figure. In 2016, a group of 21 people from Kerala had left the country in batches to join an affiliate of the Islamic State jihadist militant group.
One of them, a student, had converted to Islam before getting married. She was eight months pregnant when she left the country. In 2021, after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, Indian officials said four women from Kerala who had joined the Islamic State were in jail there.
