India, Feb. 28 -- For a film that runs a little over two hours, The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond (TKS 2), directed by Kamakhya Narayan Singh, is meaningful in exactly one scene. When a woman blames a girl's tragic fate on the clothes she wore, her own daughter responds, "A girl is a girl," pointing out that holding a woman's wardrobe responsible is effectively handing the criminal a clean chit.

Beyond that fleeting moment of clarity, this film rarely pauses to reflect. It claims inspiration from real-life incidents, but, as cinema, TKS 2 unfolds less as a nuanced narrative and more as a shouting match, engineered to sensationalise and capitalise on the villainisation of an entire religion.

The title itself appears designed to ride on the...