Categories: #trendingBlogs

The Kerala Story quilled with approvals and disapprovals

There is a line of difference between targeting a religion and raising voice against the evil. The Kerala Story attempts to establish the latter. Religion (no matter which) always guides one to lead a non-violent and sacred path by not demeaning any religion’s faith.

Before deconstructing the narrative presented in Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story, let’s try to remember Goran Kapetanovic’s Caliphate. It’s an eight- part series which focuses on the happenings in the life of three Swedish girls who were indoctrinated to imbibe the ISIS cause. Moreover the series constantly harped on how religious fundamentalism can seduce individuals and destroy lives. It created a perfect structure to mix both; psychological drama and a thriller edge, with a less attention on the logistics of the attack as the seduction of its potential female perpetrators.

Sen disapproves of being a master storyteller like Kapetanovic, but that is not the prime factor that should drive people to watch this movie. The movie aims to unravel a truth that has been brushed under the carpet for a while now and which, if not revealed might cost innumerable lives of the Hindu and Christian girls in Kerala.

One needs to understand that the film is not against Islam, but the allegations are against an organisation. It is for ISIS to come and protest if the incidents shown in the movie are untrue. No sensible Muslim in India will ever support the way ISIS handlers operate to ensnare gullible, vulnerable young girls to become ISIS brides and sex slaves. Its basic humanity. The narrative seeks to present explanations about a particular organisation’s hegemonic facts. The goal is not only to bring the entire world under the aegis of Allah, but ISIS is on a war footing to unleash terror, disrupt world peace, ruin the lives of innocent people, ransack the basic dignity of women and destroy civilisations to fulfil their selfish agenda. They will not have any remorse for butchering, raping or misleading impressionable youngsters. Every hour, an army of monsters is created to take up the devilish cause. Sadly, as seen in Caliphate and In the Kerala Story, too many young girls are brainwashed to believe it’s an honour to be chosen for the ‘holy war’.

The background score jars at times in the Kerala Story. Frankly, the easy way in which the two nursing students get convinced by their conniving roommate to change their religion appears a tad too convenient from a writing perspective. The entire brain washing process needed more gravitas. The movie should have cleared that the girls are being used by PFI or related organisation who forces conversion. It should have been balanced with the message. The constant bashing about Hindu religion by an agent becomes irresistible ‘may be that is what the director wanted’. The people of other community in question should also have a positive person, they had just kept one muslim guy with skull cap with girl family but he never spoke anything.

One of the hard- hitting dialogues from the movie would shake people from within. It is when Shalini is informed that she won’t be getting her phone back as the Sharia Law does not allow women to keep a phone with themselves and she responds with a logic and says “जब शरिया कानून बना था, तब फोन नहीं था”, and the narrative follows many such scenes.

 

Gopi Shah

Journalistic heart and humanitarian soul.

Recent Posts

ગેનીબેનના ગઢમાં ગાબડું : વાવ વિધાનસભા પર લહેરાયો ભગવો

    વાવ વિધાનસભામાં ભાજપની જીત: કોંગ્રેસને મોટો ઝટકો   બનાસકાંઠાની વાવ વિધાનસભાની પેટા ચૂંટણીનું…

2 days ago

‘બટેગે તો કટેગે’ ચાલ્યું…મહારાષ્ટ્રમાં મહાયુતિનો ઐતિહાસિક જીત

મહારાષ્ટ્રમાં ભાજપનું બુલડોઝર ફરી વળ્યું,સૌથી મોટી પાર્ટી બની ઉભરી જે દિવસની રાજકીય પક્ષો છેલ્લા 50થી…

2 days ago

સરકારની માર્ગ નિર્માણ નીતિનું ઉલ્લંઘન !

- સરકારની મહત્વની પોલિસીનું ઉલ્લઘન નવા રસ્તાના નિર્માણનો વખત આવે ત્યારે સૌ પ્રથમ તેની ભૂગર્ભ…

3 days ago

માનસિક તણાવ દૂર કરવા માટે સંગીત ની જાદુઈ અસર

સંગીત એક થેરેપી : માનસિક સ્વાસ્થ્ય માટે લાભદાયી દેશ અને વિદેશમાં થયેલા ઘણા સંશોધનો પુષ્ટિ…

3 days ago

શહેરોને હોડિગ્સનું જંગલ બનતા રોકવા ગાંધીનગર પાલિકાના રસ્તે ચાલો..!

  મહાનગરોમાં માર્ગો અને બિલ્ડીંગો પર હોડિગ્સની હારમાળા જોખમી બને છે..!?  રાજયમાં હોડિગ્સનો વિવાદ નવો…

3 days ago

એક્ઝિટ પોલના ડામાડોળ વચ્ચે મહારાષ્ટ્રના ચૂંટણી પરિણામો પર નજર

 એક્ઝિટપોલ પર હવે ભરોસો ઓછો થઇ રહ્યો છે ગતરોજ દેશના બે રાજ્યોની ચૂંટણી પૂર્ણ થઈ,જેમાં…

4 days ago