Sunshine Pictures’ The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond (UA) is the second in the The Kerala Story series. Like the first part, this one also talks about the sinister style in which fanatic Muslims forcibly convert gullible Hindu girls by feigning love affairs with them. The story traces the horrific experiences of three such Hindu girls who get trapped by three different Muslim boys.
Surekha Gupta (Ulka Gupta) falls in love with Salim (Sumit Gahlawat) who holds himself out to be very progressive. But he is very regressive in his thinking and is part of the conversion racket. Neha (Aishwarya Ojha) gets attracted to Mohd. Faizan (Arjan Aujla) who also works for the conversion gang. Divya Paliwal happily converts to become a Muslim so that she can marry boyfriend Rashid (Yuktam Khosla). But she learns the hard way that she has been trapped for life by the deceitful Rashid. Driven to their wits’ end, how these three girls in their own way expose the conversion racket and get the three boys and their accomplices punished by law forms the crux of the drama.
Amarnath Jha and Vipul Amrutlal Shah have written a story that tugs at the heart-strings. The duo’s screenplay is as raw as it can get and hence shakes the core of the viewer. Several scenes are so hard-hitting that the audience are stupefied while watching them. The scene in which Surekha is force-fed beef is chilling, to say the least. Similarly, the scene in which the old Muslim man enters the room of Neha (name changed later to Nafisa) soon after her nikaah is terrifying. The scenes showing how Rashid changes colours like a chameleon after marrying Divya (name changed later to Alia) are chilling. The torture scenes of all the three girls at the hands of their boyfriends/husbands are also terrific in their impact. However, there’s not enough build-up for the climax which, therefore, looks hurried and loses its impact to an extent.
Ulka Gupta does very well as Surekha. Although her dialogue delivery has a heavy South Indian accent, she makes up for the flaw with a powerful performance. Aishwarya Ojha is extremely natural in the role of Neha (Nafisa). She effectively portrays the frustrations of a woman physically abused umpteen times. Aditi Bhatia looks beautiful and shines as Divya (name later changed to Alia). Her dances are very graceful. Sumit Gahlawat is excellent as the sinister Salim. With his superb performance, he evokes instant hatred among the viewers for his character. Arjan Aujla is lovely as Raju alias Mohd. Faizan. Yuktam Khosla looks handsome and performs excellently as Rashid. Alka Amin lends fantastic support as Hafsa Begum. Ramji Bali (as Neha’s father) and Purva Parag (as Neha’s mother) are supremely natural. Rajiv Kumar (as Divya’s father) and Shweta Munshi (as Divya’s mother) are extraordinary. Lakshmi (as Surekha’s mother) and Abhishek Shankar (as Surekha’s father) are natural to the core. Bhakti Vasani leaves a fine impression as Sneha (name later changed to Fatima). Deepak Sharma Vats, Madhur Mittal (as Chunni), Saadhika Syal (as Samia), Sanjay Mehta (as Jalaluddin), Amrita Pareva (as Rashid’s mother), Harish Khatri (as Rashid’s father), Rahul Arora (as Rashid’s brother), Sejal Singh (as Rashid’s sister-in-law), Nand Kumar (as Maulana saab), Vijay Kumar (as DSP Vikram Rathore), Poonam Jangra (as Archana), Vrinda Narayan Duvani (as Tanya), Abhishek Khandekar (as police inspector Sunder), Sulakshana Joglekar (as sub-inspector Ashwini), Vikas Namdev Hande (as Manikant Mishra), Avinash Ujjain (as police inspector Yadav) and Vikas Shukla (as the lawyer of Divya’s father) lend excellent support.
Kamakhya Narayan Singh’s direction is mature. He has kept the narrative style raw so that it can have the desired impact on the audience. Music (by Mannan Shah, Santosh R. Nair and Rahul Suhas) is impactful but the absence of hit songs is felt. Lyrics (Manoj Muntashir and Alok Ranjan Jha) are meaningful. Mannan Shah’s background music is effective. Abhijeet Chaudhari’s cinematography is nice. Paramjeet Singh Pamma’s action and stunt scenes are thrilling. Juhi Talmaki’s production designing, and Raj Kumar Sahani’s art direction are appropriate. Sanjay Sharma’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond is a well-made film but with a hurried climax. It will do well at the box-office as its collections will pick up due to strong and favourable mouth publicity.
Released on 27-2-’26 at Maratha Mandir (2 shows; daily 3 shows from 28-2-’26) and other cinemas of Bombay by Sunshine Pictures thru August Entertainment. Publicity: so-so. Opening: ordinary (adversely affected due to uncertainty about its release following the release matter being in court). …….Also released all over. Opening was average almost everywhere.