Caricatures of a Communist, an orthodox Muslim family, a Hindutva supporter, and a Christian cop feature in the esSENSE Global skit The Real Kerala Story. In its attempt to offer a satire of life in Kerala, the group of rationalists and free-thinkers beat the makers of The Kerala Story, the Hindi film criticised for peddling propaganda against the state and its Muslim population.
The Real Kerala Story – named after a hashtag used by people of the state to showcase positive stories of communal harmony and brotherhood – ridicules Communists and Muslims alike, portraying one as a hypocrite and the other as regressive. Love blossoms between the rationalist son of the Communist and the daughter of the Muslim family, who too is a rationalist. The 30-minute skit was staged during Litmus ’23, the annual atheist conference conducted by esSENSE Global on Sunday, October 1. It was directed by Gayathri Hema Suresh and Sree Kumar.
The makers' idea of a joke seems to be getting the Communist man to say ‘Laal Salaam’ every now and then, which for some reason makes his wife laugh. The man believes in Ayurveda and supports his party's rights to conduct temple festivals. The wife who mocks him for all this is someone who believes that the smoke of Pongala – the ritual of making payasam during a temple festival – is full of oxygen. The rationalist son bashes them both. The portrayals are caricaturish and leave you unamused, and the critique does little besides highlight the stereotypes about Communists and believers.
The Muslim family is presented in no better manner, here too playing to the stereotype of a father and mother trying to get the daughter to wear a headscarf. The organiser esSence Global faces allegations of being Islamophobic, and this part of the skit only helps to strengthen the allegations.
As if to balance things out, the skit also features a Sangh follower who applauds Narendra Modi's speeches. He goes to the police with a complaint that the young woman in the Muslim family was "kidnapped" by the son of the Communist. This time the big joke is finding a name for their relationship. Is it ‘love jihad’ or ‘love Kurukshetra’, they ask, making the viewer squirm in their seat.
All the characters are shown to unite against the Sangh follower, who shares unverified WhatsApp forwards, like the one that says, “Pongala smoke is full of oxygen”.
The skit presents a skewed picture of Kerala, limiting its people to certain ideologies, beliefs, and stereotypes. Playing the ‘love jihad’ card in Kerala does not lend credence to the story. Even though the actors’ performances were the saving grace of the skit, it did not save the ship from sinking.