Kerala Story - God's Own

The Kerala Story

2023, Hindi

(Zee 5, Einthusan)

Director Sudipto Sen

Mohan's Measure ⭐

After months of controversy and hype, The Kerala Story has finally made it to OTT. Touted as a true story, the movie tells a nearly unbelievable tale of a woman who claims to have been brainwashed into radicalism and winding up in a sleeper cell.

Her story is offered as flashback before questioning UN officers. But these flashbacks seem more caricatures than characterizations. One can only question the need for more of a backstory that would force women to drop what appear to be healthy, educated upbringings to make themselves such easy prey to terrorist ideology. For this, the plot offers what is little more than picture postcard beginnings, making us to quickly that what is being presented is little more than populist propaganda.

Adah Sharma as Shalini Unnikrishnan, aka Fatima Ba, offers little to make this poorly written story work well. Her acting brings little more than a look of confusion, even at what are horrifying acts before her, and even at the seizure of her baby from her arms.

With trite dialogue and even poorer acting from the rest of the cast, what is supposed to be pathos remains pathetic.