An organisation called Uttishta Bharatha organised free screening of the controversial film, The Kerala Story in Bengaluru. The screening was held at Orion Mall in Rajajinagar on Wednesday, May 17 and young women aged between 18 to 25 were invited. Founder and Convenor of the organisation, Neeraj Kamath said that 235 women attended the screening. While at the theatre, the students and other young women who came to watch also chanted ‘bharat mata ki jai’ and ‘vande mataram.’
Uttishta Bharatha is a Bengaluru based organisation founded nine years ago in 2014. Its founder, Neeraj Kamath, said that Uttishta Bharatha works on four aspects of nation, dharma, society and nature. “In the last eight years we have done several activities ranging from workshops for children mental health and skill development, to ration distribution during the COVID 19 lockdown period, blood donation camps, school and temple beautification drives and also distribution of Hanuman Chalisa and Bhagavad Gita books to students,” he said describing the activities of the group. Neeraj claimed the group had no affiliation with the sangh. RSS and its affiliate organisations too have been arranging free shows of the movie in other parts of Karnataka.
Neeraj further said that this was the first time that the organisation had organised a free movie screening. A volunteer with Uttishta Bharatha told TNM that the organisation booked the cinema hall in PVR, Orion Mall, Rajajinagar. He said that this was the sixth such screening of the movie for college students. However, Neeraj said that Uttishta Bharatha had organised only one screening so far.
Neeraj insists that it was important for this movie to be screened as it showed the “true” story of how young women were being lured by terrorist organisations like ISIS. Though the movie has been criticised for the gross generalisation and exaggerations it makes, Neeraj believes it is important to enlighten people. “We wanted to enlighten girls who could not watch the movie on how people are misusing girls and recruiting them to ISIS. This story is from Kerala, so Kerala is already lost from our hands, I don’t want our Karnataka to also be lost the same way,” Neeraj said. “This is more like a documentary than a film,” Neeraj further said.