The film The Kerala Story has been mired in controversy ever since the release of its teaser last year and recently, when the makers announced its release date.
The movie directed by Sudipto Sen claims that about 32,000 women went missing from the state having been forcefully converted and recruited to ISIS, triggering massive backlash from the ruling CPI(M) and the Congress with the parties calling for a ban on it.
The makers have been accused of exaggerating and misrepresenting the truth and spreading false information while they maintain the movie is based on a true story.
Amid the controversy, Music maestro AR Rahman shared a heartwarming video on Thursday, May 4 of a Hindu wedding ceremony that took place inside a mosque in Kerala.
The video, which is from three years ago, was a story reported by The News Minute.
The wedding of Sarath Sasi and Anju Ashok was conducted as per Hindu rituals solemnized by a Hindu priest and held at the Cheravally Muslim Jamaath mosque in Kerala’s Alappuzha district on January 19, 2020.
The music composer had quote tweeted the video shared by another user that called the marriage “Here is another #KeralaStory”. “Bravo. Love for humanity has to be unconditional and healing”, Rahman said sharing the video.
The social media post has now gone viral.
The mosque had offered monetary assistance to the bride’s family and had hosted the wedding, as the bride’s family had financial constraints. In the video, Alappuzha MP AM Arif says that, “This is conveying a message to Kerala. Not just Kerala, but the whole nation, especially in these troubled times when people are being killed in the name of religion. Here we are teaching people to love each other. That is the message we are giving,” as reported by TNM.
Rahman’s post comes a day before The Kerala Story is set to release in theatres across the country.
The film has been widely condemned as a propaganda piece. The fact-checking news site, Alt News, recently pointed out that the claims in The Kerala Story are false and based on manipulated statements.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court refused to stay the release, refusing to accept that the film amounts to hate speech.
Chief Minister Pinayari Vijayan had slammed the movie calling it a propaganda piece and saying that the movie was a product of the Sangh Parivar’s “lie factory”.
“Propaganda films and their otherisation of Muslims should be viewed in the context of various efforts made by the Sangh Parivar to gain an advantage in electoral politics in Kerala. Their usual tactics do not work in Kerala, so they are trying to spread their politics of division through the film based on fake stories”, he added.