The Kerala Story
Zee5
36
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Synopsis
Imdb Rating6.9

A converted Muslim woman Fatima Ba narrates her ordeal of how she once wanted to become a nurse but was abducted from her home and manipulated by religious vanguards, turned into an ISIS terrorist and landed in Afghanistan jail.

Cast
Adah Sharma
Yogita Bihani
Sonia Balani
Siddhi Idnani
Devadarshini Chetan
Vijay Krishna
Pranay Pachauri
Saniya Mir
Bhavna Makhija

The Kerala Story

2023 Hindi Movie
Drama
Tried&Refused Productions
Tried&Refused Productions
With the active nature with which people were interested in knowing my take on
With the active nature with which people were interested in knowing my take on this film, I quickly acknowledged and understood that the emotions are at an all time high regarding the topics that this film focusses on. The movie The Keral Story directed by Sudipto Sen comes at a time where political, cultural and religious discourse and debate has become quite common through films. This has led to most people segregating even reviewers as left wing or right wing dependent on the films they love or hate. Irrespective of the current environment, I went in for this film with a clean slate in trying to understand whether it effectively tells a gruesome and disturbing story of 3 women being converted to Islam, a calculated indoctrination to extremism so that the individuals can be used by ISIS for their terrorist activities. The film is loosely based on the events that occurred in the life of Nimisha, her alias being Fatima, who was one of four girls who travelled to Afghanistan between 2016 and 2018 and is currently languishing in an Afghan jail with her child. The film focusses on four women who join nursing college and slowly and steadily come under the influence of Asifa, played by Sonia Balani, a radical muslim who teaches them that the only true purpose of life is to embrace Islam. How this relationships that starts presumably with friendship transitions to become of brain washing and the horrible consequences that the girls have to face forms the storyline of The Kerala Story. As the movie does focus on very sensitive subjects and I am sure the comment section will be filled with opinions, I am going to focus on several aspects of the storyline and you also do chime in with your thoughts regarding the movie. One is immediately introduced to Adah Sharma as Shalini Unnikrishnan as she is recounting what exactly happened to her from the time that she got admission in nursing college. Adah is an actor who has always been a hit and a miss regarding her performances, being praiseworthy in movies like 1920 and HASEE TOH PHASEE but overdoing most of her performances in films like Bypass Road and PATI PATNI AUR PANGA. She really does try in this film in order for us to empathise with her anguish but I feel like the trauma of this film would have been further heightened and communicated with even more conviction if it had a more capable lead actor. Her expressive eyes do a lot of the talking but her her hindi with a twang of the Malayalam accent seemed extremely forced rather than organic. What’s even worse Shalini as a character is portrayed to be the most blissfully unaware adult who does not even have basic knowledge about things surrounding her and more on that later! I want to mention one thing that has been floating around regrind this film and that is the exaggerated number of 32,000 girls being converted and joining ISIS and this number has been the biggest point of debate, almost being used as a central point in an argument for those whom oppose the film and while the number has presumably been removed from the trailer and the makers have stuck to the case of the three women that the movie focusses on, it still does not deny the fact that the existence of conversions aimed at extremism still exist. The problem was definitely exaggerated by the makers for shock value and the U turn has only happened due to the valid arguments people posed against it but that cannot be the sole reason why you believe that the problem the movie focusses on simply does not exist because that would be living in denial! The debate got so obsessed with the number that people forgot that some of the trauma showcased in the film is of real people! I have to be honest from a screenplay and visual stand point, the movie is as rudimentary as it can get from a filmmaking point of view, the performances of the supporting cast are mediocre at best, in my opinion Yogita Bihani as Nimah stands out the most, convincingly portraying her frustration with the consecutive and pressuring lectures that Asifa gives, her speech on the existing problems of conversions is also exceptionally performed. The cast of extremist muslims, terrorists and those whom aid Adah on the journey barely leave an impression and Sudipto Sen’s storytelling is chronological and extremely amateur and I feel the biggest issue of the film where one starts to doubt the intention of the filmmakers is the writing, making one wonder, is the intention to tell the story of these girls or extract a reaction from the public with hate filled dialogues. I’ll explain this a little further. The dialogues of the film do not describe the circumstances that the characters are undergoing but provide a commentary on not only the state of emergency that Kerala is in but to provide inflammatory lines on several religions, making me think its intention was only to hit a nerve with an already emotionally charged audience. One of the extremist leaders tells his comrades, Jo kaam Aurangzeb adhura chod ke Gaye the wo hum ISIS wale pura karenge. Asifa while trying to influence the hindu girls, belittles all the gods, saying what kind of a god is Ram that he lets his wife get abducted and needs the help of an entire VANAR SENA. She belittles Krishna by saying HAR JAGAH RASLEELA RACHATA HAI TUMHARA BHAGWAAN. All of this is presented for shock value and it becomes an overkill of wanting to not only brainwash the characters in the film but the audience sitting in the theatre too. You enter the nursing college and it has free Kashmir slogans and celebrates OSAMA BIN LADEN. Kerala is presented as a state that is in dire need of help. While the problems with conversions is an ongoing reality, Kerala is described as TIME BOMB PE BAITHA HAI KERALA, BACHA LIJIYE USSE! This is where a character like Shalini and her naive nature almost becomes laughable, basic concepts of praying before eating and the heaven and hell are something she is not privy to. Even a non practicing hindu will tell you the basics of prayers and how one atones for their sins. Every dialogue of Asifa is presented with scary background music and the sound effects of whips to further enhance the point of her evil intentions that lacks any form of nuance, telling the girls they’ll burn to death if they dont follow Allah. Imphadameens and meth is circulated like toffees and the shift of the girls fascination for Islam comes so abruptly, it almost seems like the drugs are doing the conversion. What is true regarding the film and what it convincingly does is that it is definitely not meant for the faint hearted. The atrocities committed towards the girls is unbearable to sit through and I understand why the film has got an A certificate but the dialogues further enhance the point that again, makes you think why the filmmakers felt that the act itself was not disturbing enough for them. A man rapes a girl and tells her while doing the act that this is not a sin in Islam. A hand of a woman is cut off in ISIS land because she wore lipstick so this film is definitely not for the squeamish and easily disturbed. While the trauma that the women and parents undergo is absolutely awful, I wished the dialogues represented their individual stories better than taking the shape of WhatsApp forwards in groups that obviously have a problem with other religions. Adah blushing and saying HUMARI BODIES EK DOOSRE KO KABOOL HAI KABOOL HAI BOL CHUKI HAIN and Geetanjali mixing cocaine and weed to make a joint are just some of the odd moments in the film. The three women and what they underwent as they were brainwashed and indoctrinated into extremism in Islam was absolutely horrifying. Some of the sequences of the film were painful to sit through. While the performances and screenplay are mediocre at best, I wished for the dialogues to cater to the three women, their stories & not for the lines to be filled with blasphemous general statements that will charge the audience into believing all people of a particular religion are the same. The nuance to mention the extremist elements being the problem is missing & a little detailing for the same would have been ideal. A heartbreaking tale that in my opinion deserved better storytelling.
17 May’23 10:37
Sai Charen
Sai Charen
The moment I heard about the movie , I wanted to watch it.
The moment I heard about the movie , I wanted to watch it. The narrative is non-linear where it revolves around three different timelines of the same person. Sometimes the truth
Mano Yokesh
Mano Yokesh
There was this boy who was studying 4th STD, his classmate Abdul just beat the
There was this boy who was studying 4th STD, his classmate Abdul just beat the shitta Outta him for hurting their classmate and his crush lakshmi. That boy sat down and took his
Rudrangshu Samanta
Rudrangshu Samanta
Don't pass on information in your so-called movies but concentrate on how to
Don't pass on information in your so-called movies but concentrate on how to write good scripts from an idea that really exists, make the scene speak for itself and not always use
Friend _O
Friend _O
How not to tell a true story
How not to tell a true story
Srikar N
Srikar N
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That1 Reviewer
That1 Reviewer
The Kerala Story is a Hindi film released on May 5, 2023.
The Kerala Story is a Hindi film released on May 5, 2023. The film is directed by Sudipto Sen and stars Adah Sharma, Siddhi Idnani, Pranay Pachauri and Yogita Bihani in lead
Cinema Guy
Cinema Guy
"Kerala Story" delves into the complexities of religion and personal identity
"Kerala Story" delves into the complexities of religion and personal identity through the intertwining stories of four girls grappling with religious conversion issues. The film