The Kerala Story

May 06, 2023

The Kerala Story is an Indian Hindi-language film directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah.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 film has courted controversy for portraying itself as an apparent depiction of a true story and for claiming that thousands of women from Kerala are being converted to Islam and recruited into ISIS. This claim was fact checked and was found to not be supported by evidence.The film has also faced criticism from political parties in Kerala who allege it of promoting the Sangh Parivar's agenda.

Critical reception

The Times of India rated film 3 out of 5 stars, praised acting of Adah Sharma and wrote "the film feels more like a tutorial of radicalization than entertainment for the audience. It also goes to extremes to make its point, and that could be quite unsettling for audiences" as criticism.NDTV rated film 0.5 out of 5 stars and termed the film as a "lengthy WhatsApp forward in the guise of a movie which is far from reality" they also criticised acting in the film and termed writing as "cringe".The Indian Express rated the film 1 star out of 5 star and wrote "The film itself is nothing but a poorly-made, poorly-acted rant which is not interested in interrogating the social complexities of Kerala".Koimoi rated the film 1.5 star out of 5 star, praised Adah Sharma's acting while criticised Sen for its direction and wrote "Sudipto Sen definitely doesn’t understand the importance of nuances and poignancy in making this movie"