The AIDEM Exclusive

When falsity walks the streets, even art and literature cannot be free of it. Stories do not just happen; they are often concocted. When the trailer of the movie The Kerala Story was released last November, it was pointed out that the movie belongs to the genre of concoction. The trailer of the movie that conjures up false and spurious allegations about Kerala society was not officially censored at the point of its release. This fact was revealed by none other than the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) itself. The revelation appeared in the official reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query that the Chennai-based television anchor B.R. Aravindakshan filed with the CBFC. On February 23, 2023, he filed his RTI application asking the Censor Board if the trailer had been duly scrutinized and certified. The reply from the Censor Board on March 16, 2023 unequivocally makes it clear that the trailer did not undergo its due diligence. It also suggested that the complainant could approach the Appellate Authority of the CBFC in case he wanted to take any further step on the matter.

Now the movie’s posters have appeared carrying May 5 as the date of release. Sudipto Sen is the director of the movie made under the banner of Sunshine Pictures. Yet another trailer of The Kerala Story is also out now depicting Kerala as a haven for Muslim terrorists.

Promotional Poster for the film

The movie, claiming to be a depiction of real events, allegedly propagates misinformation about Kerala and its society_ a fact that was pointed out even as the film was being shot. Its story revolves around the lives of four women protagonists. One of them is Shalini Unnikrishnan, a nurse who has chosen the path of service to the public. She gets trapped in the vicious network of the ISIS, a Muslim terrorist organisation, and is forcibly converted to Islam. Her name is changed to Fathima Baa and she is imprisoned in an Afghan jail after joining the ISIS terrorist group. The actress, Ada Sharma is cast as Shalini. Yogitha Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idani portray the other three girls.

The film depicts Kerala as a place where people are regularly recruited by terrorist organisations and raises a grave allegation that 32,000 women of Kerala were recruited by ISIS terrorists into their fold. The director, Sudipto Sen reportedly arrived at this conclusion by seriously misrepresenting a few statements made by two political leaders and ex-Chief Ministers of Kerala, Ommen Chandy (INC) and V.S. Achuthanandan (CPIM). In an interview with City Media in 2021, Sudipto Sen reportedly said that he got the figure of 32,000 from a statement made by Ommen Chandi in 2010 in the Kerala Legislative Assembly.

Response received for RTI Application

The truth is not anywhere close to the above. On June 25, 2021, Ommen Chandi informed the Kerala Legislative Assembly that between 2006 and 2021, 2667 individuals had converted to Islam in Kerala. Nowhere in this reply was a mention of ISIS. The teaser of the film manipulatively uses in it a statement by V.S. Achuthanandan about Popular Front, a recently banned Muslim outfit. Also, in the teaser where the words of V.S. Achuthanandan are heard, the subtitles read an entirely different translation, with no connection to the original words. Alt News, a fact-checking website at that time, asked Sudipto Sen to correct this mistake but he did not bother to follow it up.

A documentary titled, ‘In the Name of Love’ directed by Sudipto Sen came out in 2018 and dealt with the same theme as the new feature film. This documentary had as its key narrative, stories of Hindu and Christian women getting converted to Islam by foul means and sent to countries having a terrorist presence. The documentary when screened at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) caused quite a commotion, eventually squeezing out an apologetic explanation from the director that the film was not about ‘Love Jihad’.

On February 4,2020 Benny Behanan, Lok Sabha member from Kerala had raised a pointed question in parliament regarding the allegations that ‘Love Jihad’ is widespread in his South Indian State. Responding to his question, G.Kishan Reddy, Minister of State for Home Affairs in the Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) government stated categorically that “no such case of ‘Love Jihad‘ has been reported by central agencies. He went on to add that the term ‘Love Jihad‘ is not defined under extant laws.

Sudipto Sen, Director

More recently, in November 2022 a three part RTI query seeking to know the facts on this issue was filed to the union Home ministry.

The questions were the following –

• How many cases have been recorded so far of young Hindu girls from India being converted to Islam and sold to ISIS terror organisation? Please provide State wise details
• How many Hindu community girls have converted to Islam and joined ISIS terror organisation? Please provide data from 2014 to 2022.
• Does the Home Ministry keep track of how many Hindu girls from India are living as slaves in the ISIS terror organisation? If yes, then provide complete details about it.

The Home Ministry gave a consolidated answer to these three queries stating that the required information is not available with the offices of the union Home Ministry. It went on to add that “Police” and “Public order” are State subjects as per the seventh schedule of the Constitution of India. It also said that the State police is the first responder in case of any criminal terrorist activity, including investigation, registration and prosecution of crimes and protection of life and property.

Sudipto Sen has been quite vocal about his hatred of Communism. At the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2022, when Nadav Lapid, the Israel Film Maker and Jury Chairman, criticised the controversial movie Kashmir Files, Sudipto Sen was the only Jury member who opposed him.

The JNU incident was seen by many as a manifestation of Sudipto Sen’s malice towards Kerala which stands as an island of secular grit even after the RSS-backed BJP won two consecutive elections at the national level. It was alleged that Sudipto was consciously trying to belittle and deprecate even Kerala’s well-documented achievements and present the sState as a society that appeases Muslim communalism.

The Kerala Story has to be seen as a continuation of Sudipto’s false propaganda. The message that the teaser puts across blatantly is majority communalism backed by nothing but falsehoods and distortions. The movie’s posters say that it has versions in four languages which would be released simultaneously – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. Though it is mandatory to display the type of Censor Board certification of the movie (A, U, AU etc.) in all publicity materials, the posters do not have any such information displayed on them. This omission raises the serious doubt whether the film was properly scrutinized and certified by the CBFC. A more relevant question would be about the criteria by which this film was allowed to go to the public domain despite its gravely defamatory portrayal of the Kerala society which has the potential to provoke communal tensions.

Promotional Poster

The Censor Board constituted a Film Publicity Screening Committee in 1990 April to preview and all the publicity materials of all feature films to check whether they contain indecency, overt violence, anti-women propaganda and so on. The committee has its headquarters in Mumbai and regional offices in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Thiruvananthapuram. The reply given to Aravindakshan for his RTI query suggests that this committee did not preview or approve the trailer of The Kerala Story which was released in November last year.

Soon after the first trailer was made public, Aravindakshan filed complaints against it with the CBFC as well as Kerala’s Chief Minister. A police case was reportedly filed on the basis of his complaint. With the date of the movie release being already announced, Aravindakshan is demanding further action on his complaint from the authorities concerned.

This article was originally published in Malayalam. Readhere.