OPINION: Why Afwaah Is More Mature A Film Than The Kerala Story

Think about it again; two films, Afwaah & The Kerala Story, talking about deeply controversial political topics get released in the same week. One gets into a controversy, while the other doesn’t.

New Delhi: Last week's film releases 'Afwaah' and 'The Kerala Story' in theatres have created quite a stir among the pan-India audiences. 'Afwaah' starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bhumi Pednekar, and Sumeet Vyas, despite getting good reviews, has appealed only to a certain section of the upper and lower-middle class intelligentsia  while 'The Kerala Story' headlined by an all-female cast has received glowing audience reviews from all sections. Interestingly, both films talk about ‘love jihad’ in major parts. But while one seems to be embroiled in a controversy, besides getting banned in West Bengal, the other, being an important political statement, is lying cold and in need of attention.

Since I watched and reviewed both films, I would like to take the liberty to draw comparisons between the two films – Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story and Sudhir Mishra’s Afwaah. 

Depiction of 'Love Jihad' & other things

In 'The Kerala Story'

'The Kerala Story' is a feature film inspired by certain true events in the southern state of Kerala. It reimagines the plight of three women from quaint Kasaragod town affected by what has come to be termed as “love-jihad”, besides brutal inhuman crimes such as rape, sex slavery, radicalisation, indoctrination, and even recruitment by ISIS.  

The film has Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani in the lead and it  works in the docu-feature format fictionalising and dramatising  the research that has gone into the film.

As per the film's statistics, more than 30,000 girls have been missing as a result of forced religious conversion to Islam and their subsequent exploitation in terror-inflicted West Asian territories. Perhaps, the stats, including the allegedly exaggerated and unsubstantiated figure of 30,000, are the reason why the brutality shown in 'The Kerala Story' hits even harder. But, what is problematic is the way this depiction is shown. There are set binaries between black-white, good-bad and a certain way of presenting the facts that takes away the sensitivity associated with such a controversial topic involving two religious communities.

In Afwaah

In contrast, 'Afwaah' starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bhumi Pednekar and Sumeet Vyas is another political statement on celluloid that talks about social media and ‘love jihad’.

Like 'The Kerala Story', it also talks about "love jihad" but without targeting any particular community in totality. This 'Afwaah' does wonderfully by making its two lead protagonists from two different communities — a Hindu and a Muslim. Bhumi Pednekar plays the role of a Rajasthani woman stuck in a political alliance that will end up in a loveless marriage. Meanwhile, Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays a Muslim man who has worked in the USA for a major part of his life and also happens to be married to a Hindu woman, named Nandita.

'Afwaah' talks about ‘love jihad’ in a social, cultural and political manner- intertwining corruption, greed, sectionalism, caste, and the larger stereotypes and socio-cultural tensions of a small Rajasthani township. There is research here as well, but in a microcosm of a space that challenges the overall human nature in which breeds contempt, stereotypes, generalisation, bigotry, fundamentalism etc.

In 'The Kerala Story', this context is deeply problematic. In the Adah Sharma film, ‘love-jihad’ is only spoken of in the political angle. There is larger macrocosmic research pertaining to ISIS, the movement between borders, the conversions that are done by deeply indoctrinating certain aspects of Islam in young, vulnerable girls but the why, what, and other cultural-economic factors are missing. 

Reasons to watch The Kerala Story & Afwaah

However, the docu-feature style, performances, exposition, and emotions are also perhaps reasons why people are watching this deeply controversial film.

'Afwaah', on the other hand, also has other commendable elements like an impressive opening sequence, performances, the writing, the editing, background score and the camera angles.

One element that the writer would like to bring to your attention, to draw comparisons between 'Afwaah' and 'The Kerala Story', is the camera angle in both films.

Camera Shot Angles In Afwaah & The Kerala Story

In 'Afwaah', the director keeps a certain distance from the characters of his film. Despite undergoing deep agony, anger, frustration and suffering, we are never fully, emotionally invested with them because of the use of mid shots. There is always a certain distance from them so as to keep with the larger intention of being an observer of the dynamics and motive that drive the film.

In 'The Kerala Story', we are deeply empathising with the plight of the suffering women. This is also achieved with the use of close-ups, making us emotionally invest and root for the good to overpower evil. The intention of the filmmaker in 'The Kerala Story' is obviously different from 'Afwaah', i.e. not to observe but to disseminate information, in a particular manner, about such horrific incidents in Kerala. Thus, labels such as ‘propaganda’ etc are being attached to the film.

Like the camera angles, there are various differences between the two films, for which you can also read reviews of both films. 

While both films are worth a weekend watch, on a personal note, I am slightly more inclined towards ‘Afwaah’ for its mature treatment of a deeply controversial topic such as ‘love jihad’.

Think about it again; two films talking about deeply controversial political topics are released in the same week. One gets into a controversy, while the other doesn’t. What could be the reason? Watch both and decide.

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