The Kerala Story — The Scary Truth Packaged In A Mediocre Movie
Unless it affects you or may affect you in some way, it will always feel like a propaganda
I walked for 10 minutes under the drizzling sky of Bengaluru to reach Cinepolis which is walking distance from my rented apartment. My wife refused to watch it after watching the trailer, she didn’t want to get disturbed by it. I bought the ticket at 3:57 pm last Saturday for the 4 pm show. I got the second last seat left in the hall, the 10th seat in the first row.
I knew the storyline and was aware of the plight of women under the ISIS regime. Hence, the brutality shown in the movie didn’t shock me. I was also not shocked while watching the parts where the girls were being brainwashed gradually because I have heard many question Hindu gods and their capabilities and sometimes even their character, including many Hindus. I did that too till my college days.
What really hit me emotionally was the plight of the family of the girls who got trapped by the grooming gangs and agreed to convert to another religion without even consulting their parents. In fact, they began detesting their parents for following a “wrong” religion of a “weaker” god.
I particularly liked the way the barren lands and hills of the Afghanistan-Iraq-Syria route were shown. It is so beautiful and scenic that I wondered that if ISIS people could retire from terrorism and set up tourist camps along this route, they would do good business and also live a good ethical life earning an honest living.
What I disliked the most about the movie was the amateurish and sometimes irritating use of background scores. It seemed the makers tried too hard to evoke emotions in certain scenes. Had they not kept any background score, the silence or the natural background noise would have made the scene more impactful.
Another thing I felt made the movie dull in some parts was that the movie felt scripted. In many scenes, the actors were giving out facts and numbers rather than having a normal conversation or an emotional outburst. Since the director of the movie Sudipto Sen has prior experience in making documentary movies, his style of filmmaking can clearly be felt here. Better storytelling could have created a better impact.
Overall, I feel that the whole team of The Kerala Story needs to be applauded for their courage and conviction to bring to light a story that most people aren’t even aware of, and those who are aware of, have ignored it as an inconvenient truth that they are helpless against. I hope many people go and watch this movie so that other filmmakers are also inspired to select difficult uncomfortable topics like this and we have debates and discussions on such issues and hopefully come up with a viable solution with the support of every community.
