“The Kerala Story: Brutal reality of love jihad, weaknesses of Hindu society hit hard enough to trigger a rude awakening”, firstpost.com, May 2, 2023:
“When the teaser for The Kerala Story was released a few months ago, there was a bitter backlash from both overt and covert Islamist groups. As a result, cases were filed against the film’s producer, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, and its director, Sudipto Sen. Having studied Love Jihad and the trafficking of victim girls and boys to Jihadi battlefields in the Middle East, the story was not unfamiliar to me. I had previously interviewed two Christian clerics from different sects in Kerala more than a year ago. During the interview, they discussed their research and meetings with victim families of Love Jihad and explained the techniques used by Jihadis to ensnare girls. Two years ago, approximately 3,000 Christian girls had disappeared from just one sect of Kerala Christians.
However, reading and talking to people is one thing but watching the same story on screen is very different. It hits you hard. I had the fortune of watching a preview of the film and I came out shaken.
The film opens on the big screen with some stunning visuals of huge arid mountains with snow-capped peaks in the background and a haunting song that stays with you even after you come out of the theatre – ‘Na zameen mili na phalak mila….’ by Sunidhi Chauhan. The cameraman deserves kudos for the beautiful cinematography. He is able to capture the majesty and the arid brutal surroundings of forbidding terrain. Director Sudipto Sen has scouted the unseen areas of Ladakh to create Afghanistan and Syria very skilfully….”
Read the full article at firstpost.com.
