Kerala Responds To Kerala Story 2 Trailer With Beef Festivals
While social media saw polarised reactions nationwide, responses from within Kerala were largely negative, with users flooding platforms with memes and mockery. Both leading political parties in the state, the ruling CPI(M) and Kerala Congress, have both strongly reacted to the trailer, with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office issuing a statement against the film
Hyderabad: As the trailer of The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond sparked discussion about the beef eating culture in Kerala, audiences in Kerala - particularly student organisations and activists - have come out in protest against the trailer. The trailer shows a Hindu woman being force-fed beef by Muslim characters, a portrayal critics argue amounts to hate speech targeting the state.
While social media saw polarised reactions nationwide, responses from within Kerala were largely negative, with users flooding platforms with memes and mockery. Both leading political parties in the state, the ruling CPI(M) and Kerala Congress, have both strongly reacted to the trailer, with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office issuing a statement against the film.
“It is shocking how fabricated narratives aimed at inciting communal discord receive a free pass, while critical expressions of art get gagged. We must stand united against these attempts to paint our land of harmony as a hub of terror,” the CM wrote on X.
The Kerala Story 2 is the sequel to the controversial film The Kerala Story(2023), directed by Sudipto Sen, which dealt with alleged forced religious conversion into islam that the makers claim to be true. The film had won the national awards for Best Direction and Best Cinematography at the 71st National Film Awards.
Although early reactions to the sequel’s trailer were mostly confined to social media, the days that followed saw several groups across Kerala organising beef festivals in response. On Friday, students from the Students’ Federation of India, the ruling party’s student wing in the state, held a beef festival at Manaveeyam Veedhi in Thiruvananthapuram.
Students at the KR Narayanan Institute of Visual Science and Arts also organised a beef festival on campus to protest the narrative presented in the trailer.
The sequel, directed by Kamakhya Narayan Singh, is scheduled for release on February 27 amidst legal challenge in the Kerala High Court.