STORY: “The Kerala Story,” tells the experiences of three young girls from different parts of Kerala, with Shalini’s abduction and subsequent conversion to Islam receiving the majority of attention. After becoming radicalized, Shalini is forced to join ISIS as a terrorist. Read The Kerala Story Review below.
Rating: *** (3/5)
The Kerala Story Review
How do you evaluate a movie that tells the tale of people impacted by a divisive sociopolitical crime and generates controversy? A feature film called “The Kerala Story” was motivated by actual occurrences in the state of Kerala. In a seemingly innocent-looking village called Kasaragod, Kerala, it imagines the fate of three women who have been affected by such situations (love-jihad, terrible inhuman crimes including rape and sex slavery, radicalization, brainwashing, and ISIS recruiting, among others). For obvious reasons, the author will not evaluate or analyze “The Kerala Story” in light of its setting.
Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani play key roles in the movie. The opening scene of “The Kerala Story” shows a bruised Adah Sharma at a UN detention facility. While being questioned, she recalls how she ended up becoming a trained ISIS terrorist. The picture changes to Kerala, God’s own country, from the arid landscapes of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The primary heroine, Adah Sharma (Shalini Unnikrishnan alias Fatima), who enrolls in a nursing college in Kasargod, where she meets two additional ladies who are indoctrinated into converting to Islam, is briefly introduced to the viewer in the opening credits song. ‘The Kerala Story’ is about what happens afterward. The documentary feature structure of “The Kerala Story” results in a lot of back-and-forth movement between the past and present as well as between different settings.
Editing
The music, camera movement and color scheme distinguish the tone of the past and present. The present is depicted in brown and dry tones, while the past is filled with vibrant hues that represent the characters’ emotional states as well as their circumstances, including the pain and suffering of the past and the present’s youthful exploration.
The West Asian terrain moves quickly, and several cards list the precise locations of ISIS hideouts and other locations. This feeling of building suspense is extremely effectively accomplished by the use of sharp cuts in the edit.
In that way, “The Kerala Story” is very skillfully edited. The makers of the film occasionally extended scenes and sequences of terrible violence, rape, and exploitation to emphasize the suffering of the women touched by it. Overall, the parallel tales of the past and present are rather well-balanced. The current plot uses a lot of close-ups when the characters’ circumstances have gotten worse and the consequences are harsh as opposed to when everything was as it was in the past. Mid shots and long views are frequently employed in the previous plot to show how the main setting affects the main characters.
Storyline
The Kerala Story’s storyline is also highly captivating and holds your attention throughout the entire movie. The three leads’ lives are dramatized, and there is a steady buildup to the release at the end of the movie. This fits the three-act format nicely.
In this aspect, “The Kerala Story” doesn’t play around a lot with the narrative framework. It is mainly focused on telling the story in a specific way to inform others. It is a different kind of cinema when knowledge is shared through a film to teach the audience. Particularly when representing many populations is involved…
Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani all give excellent performances that are right on.
Themes
The Kerala Story has a wide range of themes. The video depicts a lot of challenging Hindu religious practices, including atheism, communism, the indoctrination of Muslims, and Sharia law, which might spark a whole new level of discussion. To avoid making the entire brainwashing process seem rather inevitable, the movie also depicts extremes of toxic masculinity, the aura of innocence, the consequences of corporate control in the early years, as well as some ideological disagreement, in a very moderate and reasonable manner.
The background tune of “The Kerala Story,” however, greatly irritates me. That is extremely loud. It almost flies in the face of the story. For instance, you can hear the sound of lashes whenever a brainwashing session about the ‘helpless’ Hindu gods or a discussion of ‘hell fire’ etc. takes place. In addition to increasing the effect that may be communicated without using that type of musical element, this virtually breaks the narrative.
Review
Sudipto Sen, an independent director, deserves praise for his first mainstream film’s directing, even though “The Kerala Story” also contains a strong documentary component. The discourse is fairly generic and cliched, for example, every time Kerala is referred to as “God’s own country,” which may have been improved. In addition, “The Kerala Story” might broaden its audience by balancing its depictions of various forms of sexual exploitation and violence.
Verdict
‘The Kerala Story’ is worth watching since the endeavor is sincere and the research is sound (despite all the controversy).
Controversy
Since the teaser for the Adah Sharma movie was released, it has generated debate about the allegations it makes. 32,000 women from Kerala allegedly converted to Islam and joined the terrorist organization Islamic State. The caravan has now generated a sizable political debate.
The Kerala State Committee of the Muslim Youth League has reportedly offered a reward of Rs 1 crore to anyone who can substantiate the charges and accusations stated in the film, according to a recent ANI report. They said that starting in May, documentation collection centers will be accessible in every district. At the information collection stations, anyone may leave their information.
Even a Muslim actor and lawyer made the promise to reward anyone who presented the proof with Rs. 11 lakhs. He said he would still award the money even if proof of 32 such women was shown to him.
