Crossing the 100 Crore line within just 10 days, The Kerela Story becomes the 4th Hindi film. Directed by Sudipi Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the idea behind creating this film is very simple. It is premised on the conspiracy theory of love jihad and traces the story of how women from Kerela are converted to Islam, joining the Islamic Republic of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Starring Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani and Siddhi Idnani, this film is one of the most talked about movies in the entire nation. Right from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the common man there is a lot of hype and unrest that has been created by this film. Whether it is Twitter chatter, political jibes, celebrity perspectives, online trolls or court verdicts; there are many varied opinions about this film.
Adah Sharma plays the lead as a naive girl, Shalini Unnikrishnan/Fatima Ba who is a nursing student. She is a Hindu girl who has been brainwashed by an extremist group to convert to ISIS. She is then sent to a prison in Afghanistan. Along with her are her classmates, Nimah Mathews (as played by Yogita Bihani) and Geetanjali (as played by Siddhi Ignani). Being nursing students of Kasaragod’s National Nursing Institute, they are also roommates with ISIS agent Asifa Ba (as played by Sonia Balani). It is Asifa who is on a mission to indoctrinate and convert non-Muslim girls to Islam. So in her attempt to convert Shalini, Nimah and Geetanjali to Islam, she sends them to Syria as sex slaves. Not only are they manipulated and introduced to drugs and other intoxicants, but the movie also portrays a picture of the restraint on women to fight back and all of the hardships that they as they face conspiracy.
Although the movie claims to be based on many different true stories, the actual truth is based on the accounts of three women from different parts of Kerela who had converted to Islam and travelled with their husbands to join ISIS between 2016-2018.
Why is this happening in Kerela and not in any other state in the country? Hasn’t this been occurring for a long time in many other countries and states in India? Stirring up a great deal of commotion, the film attempts to highlight sex slavery, terrorism and love jihad. By highlighting the lives of the four women portrayed in this film, have these issues been magnified to do something about them? There are very disturbing and violent scenes throughout the movie about the ISIS camp and throughout the movie. Besides that, a lot of detail has been illustrated to portray the ‘eyes of terrorism’ which could in fact disturb and upset the viewer. The movie is like opening Pandora's box where there are many different viewpoints. What is your take?
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