The Kerala Story Movie Review and Rating

PLOT: A converted Muslim woman Fatima narrates her ordeal of how she got manipulated by religious vanguards and turned into an ISIS terrorist. The plot follows the story of a group of women from Kerala who are converted to Islam and join the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The Kerala Story is directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, who is also the creative director of the film. The film is captioned as being based on a real-life incident, while the reliability of the statistics shown are not backed by any real evidence. It was released in theatres on 5th May 2023.

The producer of the controversial film told the Kerala High Court that the teaser, which claimed that more than 32,000 women from the southern state were recruited to the Islamic State or ISIS, will be removed from their social media accounts.

Star Cast:
Adah Sharma as Shalini Unnikrishnan/Fatima
Yogita Bihani as Nimah
Sonia Balani as Asifa
Siddhi Idnani as Geetanjali/Anisa
Usha Subramanian Saksena as Geetanjali’s Mother
Devadarshini
Vijay Krishna
Pranay Pachauri
Pranav Misshra

MOVIE REVIEW: Is ‘The Kerala Story’ a propaganda film or not? whether it only promotes Islamophobia? the actual numbers of victims are 32000 or just 3? It Is Still Debatable.
We will review this movie only based on its story, screenplay, direction, performances, and other technical aspects.

The Kerala Story is a hard-hitting, shocking, and disturbing film that leaves the viewers with a feeling of discomfort. The story of the film revolves around love-jihad, brutal inhuman crimes such as rape, sex slavery, radicalisation, indoctrination, and ISIS recruitment. Even if the shreds of evidence are lacking, the makers would like you to believe that these events are inspired by true incidents. If you still don’t believe that then the victim and the parents of the victims speak at the end of the movie making it more believable.

The director and writers of the film managed to keep the story intriguing. The dialogues are powerful but few are manipulative and it tries to provoke hate. The first half is engaging, fast-paced, and quickly introduces us to three nursing students in Kerala who are brainwashed by an extremist group and makes them believe that only Islam can be their saviour. The screenplay in the second half is engrossing and keeps you hooked until the end of the film. The parallel storylines showing the past and present scenes are well-edited and well-balanced.

Adah Sharma delivers a praiseworthy performance and she has done complete justice to the character of vulnerable Shalini. Her Malayali accent is spot on. Yogita Bihani and Siddhi Idnani played their part very well. Sonia Balani’s dialogue delivery and her performance as Asifa was excellent. Other supporting actors played their parts with utmost sincerity.

The Kerala Story Movie Rating:
Direction 3.5/5
Acting 4/5
Dialogues 4/5
Story 4.5/5
Screenplay 4/5
Overall Hit ya Flop Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars (Must Watch)