(Trigger warning: The following review contains mentions of domestic abuse and sexual violence)
I've never been to therapy. But, after seeing "The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond", I'm seriously considering it. Or, maybe I'll just deal with the after-effects by watching multiple videos of fluffy Golden Retrievers and chonky Ragdoll cats. This is a "horror" movie of the bad variety. A couple of reasons. One, this is the kind of movie that you have to be mentally well-prepared for, more than you would a genuine horror movie. Two, it reminds you of the kind of hate that can be manufactured through the medium of cinema.
By "you", I'm referring to the sensible, critical-thinking, independent-minded, progressive ones among us. This is a movie that professes its strong disapproval of this very group — and, of course, Muslims. This movie believes qualities like critical thinking and independence are unhealthy, because apparently, they can corrupt young Hindu girls/women. In this movie's world, there's not a single bad Hindu. They are the champions of purity and culture. Their men can do no wrong, apparently. It's only the Muslim men who are capable of it. In a country where criminals associated with a ruling party, who committed some of the most heinous crimes, are allowed to walk free, right? Who are they trying to fool?
Also, in a movie like this, it's not a surprise that one of the Muslim men, addressed later as a "terrorist", who forces a Hindu girl to convert and confines her to a room forever, was somebody who pretended to be a "Muslim liberal journalist". This is the least amount of the so-called "character development" they can come up with because the other two men are basically the same people except for their appearances. They are all drama queens who indulge in emotional blackmail to ensnare their victims. One cuts his hand. Another slaps himself. The third starts crying at the drop of a hat. All nefarious individuals. But where are the young Hindu men who are capable of doing the same thing? No representation. The only good Hindu men in the movie are the fathers of the three women. And, of course, the other older men who assemble together in the fight, which includes the cops.
It goes without saying that this is a fictional movie completely cooked up in the imagination of people who share the delusion — or should I say, fear? — that their country will be overtaken by Muslims in the future. What kind of dystopian nightmare is this? I'm not asking this out of curiosity, but merely pointing out the absurdity of it all. Such people do exist, and it's evident that this movie is made for "WhatsApp uncles" who believe that all Muslims are as bad as the evil men presented in the movie. It's funny that the so-called "research" this movie is based on is shown in Hindi at the end of the movie, not in English, and read by a narrator in a hurry. Basically, if you can't read Hindi, you're not going to get an idea of what data they're referring to, and if you know Hindi, you're not given enough time to process. The same goes for the dialogues without English subtitles.
As for the Malayalis, no, this movie isn't set entirely in Kerala. Three locations: Kochi, Jodhpur, and Gwalior. The characters and their parents, even the joke of a Malayali "representation" — basically, Shalini Unnikrishnan 2.0 and Thekkepattu Sundari Damodharan Pillai 2.0 — mostly speak in Hindi with the occasional use of "acha" (dad), "amma" (mom) and "adipoli" (super). I wish they had completely stuck to Hindi because whenever they utter a badly pronounced Malayalam word, it's like dipping beef in ice cream (not that I've tried it, but beef lovers can imagine). Speaking of beef, it's the "progressive" Malayali woman (played by Ulka Gupta in the hammiest manner possible) who is forced to eat beef by her Muslim boyfriend and the group of purdha-clad women at his lair. What's even funnier is that, after all the torture, she later magically realises that her true identity has always been... Hindu. Whoa!
I must, however, say that Aishwarya Ojha is quite good as a promising javelin thrower, a devout Hindu woman, who, out of all the three women, has to endure the worst, which involves getting raped multiple times by men of all age groups. She is so convincing in depicting her suffering that you can't help but feel moved. But at the same time, one cannot help but think how tricky this casting is, because there's the nagging sense that, by casting such a strong performer, the makers are manipulating you in the cheapest manner possible. While on cheap, don't get me started on how these sexual assaults are shot. It's as cheap as anything you see in a 1980s/1990 movie. You know, the men coming out of the bedroom one by one, with a look of either smug satisfaction or a wicked smile. Two of the actors are classic examples of typecasting. One of the rapists, played by Madhur Mittal, has played the same role before, in Raveena Tandon's "Maatr". Ojha, on the other hand, played a Muslim rape victim, the Bilkis Bano stand-in, in the opening portions of actor-director Prithviraj Sukumaran's "L2E: Empuraan" — a movie that right-wing groups had a BIG problem with, for obvious reasons. You could ask why these actors chose to do movies like these. Well, it's their job, isn't it? Don't count on celebrities to validate your political ideologies.
"The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond" ends with a "triumphant" sequence involving a bunch of bulldozers and a song with "Har Har Mahadev" and "Shivaji" in the lyrics. Talk about subtle. No, movies like this shouldn't be banned. Absolutely not. Let them continue to make them. It helps understand — for those who can stomach the kind of sensory assault filmmakers like these subject their viewers to — the insidious minds that not only make such movies but also vehemently back them.
Film: The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond
Director: Kamakhya Narayan Singh
Cast: Ulka Gupta, Aishwarya Ojha, Aditi Bhatia, Sumit Gahlawat, Arjan Singh Aujla, Yuktam Kholsa
Rating: 1/5