Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan says ‘The Kerala Story’ aims to spread hate propaganda

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NEW DELHI: ‘The Kerala Story’ is all set to release next week, but the discussion around its plot is not stopping. The movie is about 32,000 women who disappeared from Kerala and joined extremist organisations in Iraq and Syria. This makes the audience question governance in state. ‘The Kerala Story’ will hit theatres on May 5 this year.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has finally commented on what he thinks of the movie after seeing its trailer. Vijayan said in a statement that the movie was deliberately made with the aim of communal polarisation and to spread hate propaganda against Kerala.

The statement reads, “The trailer of the Hindi film, ‘The Kerala Story’, which appears to have been deliberately made with the aim of communal polarisation and to spread hate propaganda against Kerala, was released last day. It is indicated from the trailer that this film is trying to spread the propaganda of Sangh Parivar, which has established itself as the centre of religious extremism in the land of secularism, Kerala”.

“It is necessary to see propaganda films and their Muslim alienation in the background of various efforts being made by Sangh Parivar to gain advantage in electoral politics in Kerala. It is part of a systematic move to frame the ‘love jihad’ allegations which were rejected by investigating agencies, the courts and even the Union Home Ministry. G Kishan Reddy, the then MoS, Home, who is a minister in the cabinet even today, had replied in Parliament that there is no such thing as ‘love jihad’. Still, making this false allegation as the main theme in the film is only because of the eagerness to insult Kerala in front of the world. The Sangh Parivar is trying to break the atmosphere of religious harmony in Kerala and spread the poison of communalism”, the statement said.

Seeing that Parivar politics does not work in Kerala like in other places, they are trying to spread division politics through fake stories and movies. The Sangh Parivar is spreading such myths without any fact and evidence. The big lie that 32,000 women in Kerala converted to Islam and joined the Islamic State was what we saw in the trailer of the film. This fake story is the product of the Sangh Parivar’s lie factory.

“It is also not right to justify those who use cinema only to create communalism and discrimination in the country. Freedom of expression is not a licence to categorise this country, spread fault lines and divide people. Request Malayalis to reject such communal and divisional attempts. Everyone should be alert against communal attempts to create unrest in the society through false propaganda. Will take legal action against anti-social activities”, the CM concluded.

Earlier, actress Adah Sharma who plays the lead role in the movie, said, “The story is really scary and the fact that people are calling it propaganda or are thinking about numbers before the girls went missing is scarier. Instead, it would have been the opposite that we would have discussed that girls are missing and then given a thought about the numbers.”

Meanwhile, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday reacted to the ongoing ‘The Kerala Story’ controversy on Twitter. Taking to the microblogging site he shared the poster of the film and wrote, “It may be *your* Kerala story. It is not *our* Kerala story”.

It may be *your* Kerala story. It is not *our* Kerala story. pic.twitter.com/Y9PTWrNZuL

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 30, 2023

‘The Kerala Story’ has become a topic for discussion around the numbers being exaggerated in the trailer of the film.

Helmed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the film stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani in the lead roles. The trailer of Sen’s film ‘The Kerala Story’ came under fire as it claimed that 32,000 girls from the state went missing and later joined the terrorist group ISIS.

Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly, V D Satheesan, recently said that the film should not be granted permission for screening. “The film ‘The Kerala Story’ which falsely claims that 32,000 women in Kerala converted and became members of the Islamic State, should not be granted permission for screening. The trailer clearly shows what the film intends to say”, Satheesan said in a Facebook post.

He also alleged that the film is part of an attempt to implement the Sangh Parivar’s agenda and create a social divide by casting a shadow of doubt over the minority groups. “This is not an issue of freedom of expression but part of an attempt to implement the Sangh Parivar agenda to create a divide in the society by casting a shadow of doubt over the minority groups”, he said. (ANI)