Not quite the Kerala story
The HinduPropaganda, it is said, is best delivered when it doesn’t appear to be so. About a fortnight before its release, The Kerala Story was called out by many for its gross misrepresentation of facts and deceit as the trailer claimed to portray the true story of “32,000 women” from Kerala, who it said were lured through ‘love jihad’ into joining the Islamic State. The Left, the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League dubbed the film as an attempt to malign Kerala and the Muslim community, which has greatly contributed to the State’s secular cultural milieu, while many organisations and individuals took legal recourse to get the film outlawed on the ground that it aimed to drive a wedge between communities. It remanded the matter to the Kerala High Court, which also refused to put a stay on the film’s release. A creative response is possible, as evident from the series of ‘real Kerala stories’ flooding social media in the wake of the film’s release to lukewarm response in cinemas across the State.