DYFI staff protest towards Doordarshan’s choice to display screen the ‘Kerala Story’. File
| Photo Credit: MAHINSHA TH
The Kerala Catholic Youth Movement (KCYM) unit of the Thamarassery Diocese of the Syro Malabar Church has postponed the screening of the controversial movie The Kerala Story, which was scheduled for April 13, following the rising protest towards it.
“We have postponed the screening for a date after the general elections since the issue is being overly politicised at the moment and that was never our intention,” Fr. George Vellakkakudiyil, Director of KCYM, Diocese of Thamarasseri, informed The Hindu in Kozhikode . “Some units of the KCYM have been screening the movie for some niche audience. However, we will not do a formal announcement until after the elections,” he added.
The 2023 film directed by Sudipto Sen was one of the highest-grossing Hindi movies of the yr, regardless of a majority of the critics characterising it as a piece of Islamophobic propaganda.
The film was opposed by the Kerala authorities for its alleged efforts to painting the State in a nasty mild and the alleged factual errors in it which the state and critics termed had been meant to create communal divide.
The film as soon as once more got here into the limelight after the State-owned Doordarshan screened it, kicking up a collection of debates and protests in Kerala. Further, the Idukki Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church screened it for the students in its catechism classes, claiming it was a research materials warning college students to be cautious as they fall in love.
The KCYM underneath the Thamarassery Diocese determined to comply with within the footsteps of the Idukki Diocese lately and scheduled a proper screening of the film on April 13, which has now been postponed.
However, the protests intensified within the backdrop of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, with the left-wing politicians terming it as an indication of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s affect on the church.
