Mangaluru: Unknown persons put up a huge flex board at Kollur Sree Mukambika temple entrance urging people to watch the controversial movie 'The Kerala Story'. The board welcomes Malayalee devotees to Mukambika, it is also written, “ If you want your generations also to be devotees of Ma Mookambika, please watch The Kerala Story.”
The poster of the movie is also included on the huge board captioned in English. It is estimated that 60 per cent of the devotees who visit here are Malayalis.
Straight after the release trailer of the controversial Vipul Amrutlal Shah directorial, the public was thrown into the storm of a debate and verbal war, particularly on social media. The movie, which has made claims that have no evidence so far, first said about a count of 32,000 women being trafficked through brainwashing, Love Jihad etc., from the south Indian state of Kerala but even changed that number itself to just 3.
The movie received as much attention as "The Kashmir Files", for which its maker Vivek Agnihotri ran a promotion campaign to sell the film. Vipul Shah also played a similar gimmick, creating a debate in the public sphere where communal prejudices only drove those supporting the films.
While reports suggest that many screens, particularly in the south, are experiencing a thin attendance for the movie, many of them are reluctant to play it.
However, the movie makers have approached the court, lamenting that there is a ban on the movie in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. A court has, however, dismissed pleas to stop the release of the movie, while another court sought a response from Tamil Nadu on the makers' plea about the ban. Tamil Nadu has responded that there is no ban on the movie in the state.
Many, including the ruling party of Kerala, CPI(M), condemned the movie and commented that it is trying to propagate the Sangh Parivar agenda of polarising the community, aiming for political gains in a state where BJP has been failing pathetically in making inroads.
The opposition Congress also condemned the movie, which according to them, is maligning the state of Kerala.