The Kerala Story: Bengal bans film, BJP cries foul as TN halls withdraw it

Mamata claimed she had come to know that preparations were underway for a similar film based in West Bengal, called The Bengal Files , and said she held the CPI(M), which rules Kerala, as responsible as the BJP. “They are working with the BJP. It was their duty to criticise the film, not mine. I want to tell the Kerala CM (Pinarayi Vijayan) that your party is working with the BJP, which is showing The Kerala Files (Story), a distorted story. First they defamed Kashmir, then Kerala,” the Trinamool Congress chief said.

The BJP criticised Mamata for her decision, with Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Anurag Thakur, who said he had watched The Kerala Story, saying: “Mamata Banerjee has done injustice to the sisters and daughters of West Bengal by banning the film… Such thinking gives strength to those terrorists. At least the whole country should come together against terrorism. It is beyond understanding why their sympathies are with terrorist organisations and not with these innocent girls of Kerala, who were victims of terrorism.”

BJP West Bengal president Sukanta Majumder tweeted that it was expected of the TMC government to ban The Kerala Story. Calling it a film based on “true stories” that shows “how Islamists trap Hindu girls into Love Jihad and later send them to become ISIS terrorists”, Majumder said: “Didi wants to close her eyes to this reality. She wants to deprive the people of WB, especially women, from this harsh reality. Cases of “Love Jihad” are common in WB… By banning, she has proved again there is no FoE [Freedom of Expression] in WB. Shame!”

BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said, “If she bans The Kerala Story, what will she do after The Bengal Files is released? Will she resign?”

In Tamil Nadu, after the state theatre owners’ association said it asked multiplexes to withdraw the film from the few screens in the state showing it as there were no takers for it, State BJP vice-president Narayanan Tirupathi pointed fingers at the M K Stalin government. Tirupathi accused it of “systematically blocking” the screenings of the film by “abuse of power”.

Although local theatres and multiplexes are mostly not showing The Kerala Story, some larger national chains such as the PVR initially screened it. A multiplex owner told The Indian Express that the fear of “protests”, both inside and outside theatres, contributed to their decision. “The film has no major stars, there was no popular demand for it, nor did the theatres that were screening it receive a good response,” he said.

An official of a major Chennai-based multiplex said when they checked with the police, the latter did not say that they should not screen the film but also did not rule out a threat. The official said they then decided not to run the film as even a minor untoward incident could affect their other shows and business.

Tirupathi said the DMK government should have offered protection for those who wanted to screen The Kerala Story, instead of “allowing fundamentalist groups to issue threats and force the multiplexes to remove it”. He called the situation dangerous and said the state government appeared to have planned the whole thing, having no credible reason to ban the film. The BJP leader also said The Kerala Story raises awareness about the modus operandi of terrorist groups.

BJP leader Khushbu Sundar asked what had scared those who were fighting to get the film banned. She tweeted, “The blatantly told truth or the fear of realising of being part of the truth, unknowingly, and silently for years. Let people decide what they want to watch. You cannot decide for others. Tamil Nadu govt gives lame reasons to cancel the shows. Thank you for letting people know that it’s a must-watch film.”

Directed by Sudipto Sen, The Kerala Story revolves around a group of Kerala women newly converted to Islam joining the ISIS in Afghanistan. After facing questions over a claim made in its trailer that 32,000 women from Kerala had been recruited by the terror outfit, the producers first brought this down to three and later agreed to drop the trailer.

Hearing a petition to stop screening of the film, the Supreme Court had transferred the matter to the High Court. The Kerala High Court refused to stay its screening. —With inputs from Divya A