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In this article, we will discuss The Kerala Story Movie 2023.
The Kerala Story Movie 2023
The Kerala Story is an Indian Hindi-language drama movie released in 2023 directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah.
This film has actors like Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani. The story follows a group of women from Kerala who are forced into converting to Islam and entering the Islamic State.
This movie was marketed as a true incident, the film is premised on the Hindutva conspiracy theory of “love jihad”. It falsely declares that thousands of Hindu women from Kerala have been transformed into Islam and operated by the Islamic State.
The Kerala Story was published in theatres on 5 May 2023. With a worldwide gross of ₹303.97 crore (US$36 million), it evolved as the ninth-highest-grossing Hindi movie of 2023.
It was massively publicized by the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leveraged the movie in its campaigning for the Karnataka assembly election.
However, movie critics accorded it overwhelmingly unfavorable reviews, describing the work as Islamophobic propaganda. The movie has even faced protracted litigation and protests, mainly in Kerala, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu.
The Kerala Story Movie 2023 Plot
Shalini Unnikrishnan, a woman who transformed into Islam, conveys her journey of desiring to become a nurse, only to be forced by extremist Muslims in her college who posed as friends. She was ultimately run into entering the Islamic State and ended up jailed in Afghanistan.
Critical Reception
On the review aggregator blog Rotten Tomatoes, 14% of 7 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.5 stars out of 10 stars.
Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the movie 0.5 stars out of 5 stars, naming it a “lengthy WhatsApp forward”, and reporting that Sen’s work was laughably inept and in pursuance of an insidious plan. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express rated the movie 1 out of 5 stars, describing it as a “poorly-made, poorly-acted rant” that flattened Muslims into complete evils.
Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in discovered the raison d’être of the movie to lie in propagating Islamophobia, with every Muslim character being coded as a lover.
Anuj Kumar of The Hindu explained the work as “burlesque” propaganda that borrowed its understanding of Islam, from “hate-filled Whatsapp groups” and aimed to turn the audience into purveyors of hatred by marketing “half-truths”.
Deepanjana Pal, examining for Film Companion, remarked that the movie was a “Giant Whatsapp forward” that could be barely called a movie, critiquing it for being a political agenda desired at demonizing Keralite Muslims and thumping into contemporary Hindu nationalist concerns; Sen was “glaringly inept” in attacking the causes of radicalization with sensitivity and only preyed upon the suffering of real survivors and victims.
Sowmya Rajendran, writing for The News Minute, gave the movie 1 star out of 5 stars; she wrote the movie as “no-nuance propaganda” where females were treated as objects who were to be opposed for between religions and ideologies by men.
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The Kerala Story Movie 2023 Songs Collection
The film’s music is composed by Viresh Sreevalsa and Bishakh Jyoti.
| No. | Title | LyricsSinger(s) | Singer(s) | Length |
| 1 | Pagal Parindey | Ozil Dalal | Sunidhi Chauhan, Bishakh Jyoti | 2:04 |
| 2 | Ambo Ambambo | Viresh Sreevalsa | Athul Narukara | 1:52 |
| 3 | Athira Ravil | Viresh Sreevalsa | K. S. Chithra | 2:07 |
| 4 | Tu Mila | Ozil Dalal | K. S. Chithra | 2:07 |
| 5 | Aakhir Kyun | Anant, Porshia (Kurdish), Mahalakshmi Iyer | Bishak Jyoti | 5:01 |
| 6 | Aakhir Kyun Unplugged | Anant | Bishak Jyoti | 5:08 |
The Kerala Story Movie 2023 Box Office Collection
Here is the box office collection of The Kerala Story Movie 2023 as follows:
| Day | Date | Amount | %± |
| Day 1 | 05-May-2023 (Fri) | ₹8.05 cr. | N/A |
| Day 2 | 06-May-2023 (Sat) | ₹11.01 cr. | 0.3677 |
| Day 3 | 07-May-2023 (Sun) | ₹16.43 cr. | 0.4923 |
| Day 4 | 08-May-2023 (Mon) | ₹10.03 cr. | -38.95% |
| Day 5 | 09-May-2023 (Tue) | ₹11.07 cr. | 0.1037 |
| Day 6 | 10-May-2023 (Wed) | ₹12.01 cr. | 0.0849 |
| Day 7 | 11-May-2023 (Thu) | ₹12.54 cr. | 0.0441 |
| Day 8 | 12-May-2023 (Fri) | ₹12.35 cr. | -1.52% |
| Day 9 | 13-May-2023 (Sat) | ₹19.50 cr. | 0.5789 |
| Day 10 | 14-May-2023 (Sun) | ₹23.75 cr. | 0.2179 |
| Day 11 | 15-May-2023 (Mon) | ₹10.30 cr. | -56.63% |
| Day 12 | 16-May-2023 (Tue) | ₹9.65 cr. | -6.31% |
| Day 13 | 17-May-2023 (Wed) | ₹8.03 cr. | -16.79% |
| Day 14 | 18-May-2023 (Thu) | ₹7 cr. | -12.83% |
| Day 15 | 19-May-2023 (Fri) | ₹6.60 cr. | -5.71% |
| Day 16 | 20-May-2023 (Sat) | ₹9.25 cr. | 0.4015 |
| Day 17 | 21-May-2023 (Sun) | ₹11.50 cr. | 0.2432 |
| Day 18 | 22-May-2023 (Mon) | ₹4.50 cr. | -60.87% |
| Day 19 | 23-May-2023 (Tue) | ₹3.50 cr. | -22.22% |
| Day 20 | 24-May-2023 (Wed) | ₹3.40 cr. | -2.86% |
| Day 21 | 25-May-2023 (Thu) | ₹3.10 cr. | -8.82% |
| Day 22 | 26-May-2023 (Fri) | ₹2.50 cr. | -19.35% |
| Day 23 | 27-May-2023 (Sat) | ₹4.25 cr. | 0.7 |
| Day 24 | 28-May-2023 (Sun) | ₹4.75 cr. | 0.1176 |
| Day 25 | 29-May-2023 (Mon) | ₹1.85 cr. | -61.05% |
| Day 26 | 30-May-2023 (Tue) | ₹1.80 cr. | -2.70% |
| Day 27 | 31-May-2023 (Wed) | ₹1.60 cr. | -11.11% |
| Day 28 | 01-Jun-2023 (Thu) | ₹1.50 cr. | -6.25% |
| Day 29 | 02-Jun-2023 (Fri) | ₹1.05 cr. | -30.00% |
| Day 30 | 03-Jun-2023 (Sat) | ₹1.40 cr. | 0.3333 |
| Day 31 | 04-Jun-2023 (Sun) | ₹2.05 cr. | 0.4643 |
| Day 32 | 05-Jun-2023 (Mon) | ₹0.85 cr. | -58.54% |
| Day 33 | 06-Jun-2023 (Tue) | ₹0.75 cr. | -11.76% |
| Day 34 | 07-Jun-2023 (Wed) | ₹0.55 cr. | -26.67% |
| Day 35 | 08-Jun-2023 (Thu) | ₹0.50 cr. | -9.09% |
| Day 36 | 09-Jun-2023 (Fri) | ₹0.40 cr. | -20.00% |
| Day 37 | 10-Jun-2023 (Sat) | ₹0.65 cr. | 0.625 |
| Day 38 | 11-Jun-2023 (Sun) | ₹0.85 cr. | 0.3077 |
| Day 39 | 12-Jun-2023 (Mon) | ₹0.32 cr. | -62.35% |
| Day 40 | 13-Jun-2023 (Tue) | ₹0.30 cr. | -6.25% |
| Day 41 | 14-Jun-2023 (Wed) | ₹0.26 cr. | -13.33% |
| Day 42 | 15-Jun-2023 (Thu) | ₹0.20 cr. | -23.08% |
| Day 43 – Day 49 | ₹0.25 cr. |
The Kerala Story Movie 2023 Awards
Here is the list of The Kerala Story Movie 2023 Awards as follows:
| Award Ceremony | Award |
| Zee Cine Awards | Special Award |
| Zee Cine Awards | Zee5 Best Actress |
| Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival (DPIFF) | Dada Saheb Phalke Award. Most Promising Actress |
| Iconic Gold Awards | Iconic. Best Actress of the Year – Critics Choice |
| Pinkvilla Style Icons Awards | Pinkvilla Screen Movie Award. Best Actor – Female |
| Bollywood Film Journalist Awards | |
| International Iconic Awards |
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The Kerala Story Movie 2023 Actors
Here is the list of The Kerala Story Movie 2023 Actors as follows:
| Actor | Character |
| Adah Sharma | Shalini Unnikrishnan / Fatima Ba |
| Yogita Bihani | Nimah Mathews |
| Sonia Balani | Asifa Ba |
| Siddhi Idnani | Geethanjali Menon / Anisha Ba |
| Devadarshini | Shalini’s mother |
| Vijay Krishna | Ishak |
| Pranay Pachauri | Rameez |
| Pranav Misshra | Abdul |
| Pranali Ghogare | Shaziya |