A Muslim cleric is seen advising some young men to entrap Hindu and Christian women, and impregnate them if required, only to convert them to Islam and send them to West Asian countries to join the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS). A young woman in police custody offers to tell the cops the history behind her entry into terrorism. A hijab-clad young woman is convincing a friend that wearing a hijab protects her from sexual assault.
Scene by scene, the trailer of filmmaker Sudipto Sen바카라s The Kerala Story unfolds India바카라s Hindu nationalists바카라 favourite conspiracy theory of 바카라Love Jihad바카라. As per this theory, Muslim men entrap Hindu women as part of a religious war. The makers described the film as 바카라heart-breaking and gut-wrenching stories of 32,000 females in Kerala!바카라 which intends to 바카라uncover the hidden truth, of the biggest invisible threat to our daughters바카라.
Last December, when Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, who presided over the five-member jury of the 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) at Goa, came under attack for calling the Vivek Agnihotri-directed film The Kashmir Files as 바카라vulgar and propaganda바카라 movie unworthy of a film festival entry, three other members of the jury board came out in his support. The only differing member of the jury was Indian filmmaker Sudipto Sen, whose latest film, The Kerala Story, has now emerged as the latest addition to the genre of recent films whose narratives align with the propaganda of India바카라s Hindu nationalists.
바카라Believe me, you've to listen to the stories of Shalini Geetanjai Nimah and Asifa. When I listened about them, my heart was numb. Only tears engulfed me. Promise 바카라 We'll debate and fight later. Please watch it for them and their helpless parents,바카라 Sen wrote in a tweet.
Scheduled to be released on May 5, the film already has a controversial past as the Kerala Police had lodged an FIR last November, alleging that its teaser was spreading lies. In plain sight, the claim of 32,000 women 바카라mostly Hindu and some Christian바카라 converted to Islam under the pretext of marriage and were sent off to West Asia to fight for ISIS is a humongous exaggeration.
For, a 2021 US report said only 66 persons of Indian origin were on the list of ISIS foreign fighters. The Indian government, too, never estimated the number of Indian participants in the jihad of ISIS to be more than a few dozen. In fact, low Indian Muslim participation in the so-called global jihad 바카라spearheaded first by Al Qaeda and later ISIS바카라 has been a subject matter of academic and security-related discussion for a long time.
In 2020, Adil Rasheed, a research fellow at the New Delhi-based Manohar Parikkar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), wrote in an article titled 바카라Why Fewer Indians Have Joined ISIS바카라 that the apparent apathy of the Indian Muslims towards 바카라impassioned exhortations for global jihad바카라 of ISIS is not a recent and isolated instance.
바카라It can also be viewed as the community바카라s continuing rejection of the so-called global jihad, since the time it rose to prominence in the Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) region four decades ago,바카라 he wrote, adding, 바카라One of the reasons for the non-existent mujahideen from India could be that unlike some West Asian states then, India never had disposable radicals at home, nor would it ever pursue a policy of conveniently banishing them to foreign war theatres.바카라
The propaganda debate
The film바카라s claim, therefore, has faced strong opposition from the Left and the Congress, the ruling and the main Opposition force in Kerala, respectively. On Sunday, a day after Kerala Congress demanded that the Left Front government prohibits the screening of the film in the state, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lashed out at the film, calling it a 바카라product of Sangh Parivars바카라s lie-factory바카라.
바카라Freedom of expression is not a license to communalise this country, spread lies, and divide the people. Legal action will be taken against all such anti-social activities,바카라 said Vijayan.
Leaders and supporters of the BJP and other Hindu nationalist organisations have come out strongly in support of the film, just as they did the same at the time of controversy surrounding 바카라The Kashmir Files바카라.
The BJP바카라s national IT cell chief Amit Malviya described the film as 바카라based on real-life stories바카라 which were 바카라shocking and disturbing.바카라
바카라The movie portrays the rapid Islamisation of Kerala and how innocent girls are being trapped and groomed to be used as cannon fodder for ISIS. Love Jihad is real and dangerous,바카라 he tweeted.
바카라Why are the self-proclaimed champions of 바카라freedom of expression바카라 demanding a ban on the film 바카라The Kerala Story바카라?바카라 asked the BJP바카라s Kerala state unit president K Surendran, alleging that the Left and Congress are trying to downplay Love Jihad. 바카라It's a reality. Thousands of innocent girls belonging to the Christian and Hindu religions are victims of this.바카라
There were others who contested this argument, saying the two were not comparable, as one is a documentary, while the other one is fiction sold as a real-life story.
Whether The Kerala Story or its makers face any action from the state government, or non-BJP governments in other states, remains to be seen. But the time of the release of the trailer and the film could not be overlooked, as it comes days before the assembly election in BJP-ruled Karnataka, a Kerala-bordering state where 바카라love jihad바카라 바카라the central theme of The Kerala Story바카라 has been propagated by the BJP and other Hindutva forces for over a decade.
The release of such films often has a connection with elections. In 2019, the Tashkent Files, which tries to sell the Hindu nationalist conspiracy theory blaming Congress for former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri바카라s death in Tashkent, was released in April, amidst the Lok Sabha election campaign. The Vivek Oberoi-starrer biopic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also scheduled to release during the height of the campaign but the Election Commission of India (ECI) postponed its release.
The run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election is going to see a trilingual biopic of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Hindi, Marathi, and English and a biopic of BJP icon Deen Dayal Upadhyay.
Hindutva films: List gets longer
According to film critic Tanul Thakur, propaganda films are emerging as a new trend because they are getting endorsements from the 바카라top of the government바카라. These 바카라cheap, hate-ridden propaganda films바카라 have become a very convenient tool to win the favour of the people at the helm of government affairs, he says.
바카라Don바카라t forget 바카라The Kashmir Files바카라 got a direct endorsement from the Prime Minister inside the Parliament and that endorsement helped improve the film바카라s box office scenario. While critics rubbished Agnihotri바카라s previous film, The Tashkent Files, as political propaganda, it went on to win national awards,바카라 says Thakur.
In 2021, in an article in The Washington Post, journalist Rana Ayub described the Akshay Kumar-starrer Sooryavanshi as 바카라dangerous바카라 for its 바카라criminal and brazen Islamophobia바카라.
바카라After watching it, it바카라s impossible not to think of Nazi Germany, where Hitler cultivated a film industry that paid obeisance to him and made propaganda films against Jews,바카라 she wrote.
Last year, apart from The Kashmir Files, there were the anti-caste-based-reservation film Hurdang and the Karan Razdan-directed Hindutva Chapter One: Main Hindu Hoon. Razdan told the media before the release of the film that he intended to 바카라set the record straight바카라 about the 바카라wrong perception바카라 that so-called secularists are spreading about Hindutva globally. In writer-director Abhishek Sharma바카라s Ram Setu which stars Akshay Kumar, the protagonist describes Delhi바카라s Qutub Minar as a symbol of India바카라s defeat.
The trend has also gone beyond Bollywood, as is evident from the current Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-backed Marathi biopic of late Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe, named Dharmaveer: Mukkam Post Thane, which was released last year. Shinde is featured prominently in the film as one of Dighe바카라s trusted aides.
Besides, the first-look poster of the upcoming film Hum Do Hamare Baarah also triggered apprehensions that it would be another Islamophobic movie linking Muslims with India바카라s high population growth rate, as the poster showed a Muslim man with his pregnant wife and 11 children.
바카라This is a textbook definition of propaganda, typically associated with the political party in power,바카라 says film critic Sohini Chattopadhyay.
She points out that cinema was born as a technology in the 20th century, which also happened to be the age of nationalism, and has been a particularly potent means of propaganda.
Chattopadhyay mentions as examples Sergei Eisenstein바카라s Battleship Potemkin in Soviet Russia, Leni Riefenstahl바카라s Triumph of the Will during the Third Reich, and American director D W Griffith바카라s Birth of the Nation, besides the espionage films during the Cold War years when Hollywood put forth America as the free world. Pre-Independence India saw the trend of films about the awakening of people against tyrants, the Fearless Nadia-starred films for example, while some Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar films propagated Nehruvian Socialism, she says.
바카라Now, the political Right is doing the same thing in Bombay cinema. The question is, does it hold up as art or entertainment? Unlike Eisenstein and even Riefenstahl and some pompous Hollywood films, no and no! They may make money but everything that makes money is not entertainment. It is the pleasure of having your delusions reinforced,바카라 says Chattopadhyay.
