The film ‘The Kerala Story’ documents the story of three women affected by contentious socio-political crimes and controversies such as love jihad, rape, sex slavery, radicalization, indoctrination, and ISIS recruitment in the town of Kasaragod, Kerala. The film follows a documentary feature format, with a lot of back-and-forth movement between the past and present, and between landscapes. The film’s screenplay is engaging and well-balanced, following the three-act structure well.
The performances of Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani are spot-on, and they deliver commendable performances. The film is thematically rich, challenging Hindu religious worship, atheism, communism, and the process of indoctrinating Islam and Sharia law. However, the background score is quite deafening, and it almost interrupts the narrative, amplifying the effect that could be conveyed without that kind of musical element.
The direction by indie-filmmaker Sudipto Sen in his first mainstream film is commendable, though the documentary element is quite established and evident in ‘The Kerala Story.’ The film could balance out the portrayal of violence and sexual exploitation at all levels to widen its audience base. Overall, since the attempt is earnest, and the research is there, ‘The Kerala Story’ is worth a watch. However, the film does not experiment a lot with the narrative structure and is more concerned with revealing the story in a particular fashion to make people aware. When information dissemination with the motive of educating the audience happens through a film, it becomes a different kind of cinema. Especially when the portrayal of different communities is involved.
