Did 'Saira' disturb?

Screened recently at the Film Fest in the city, Saira, moves away from the conventional,'boy-meets-girl-song-dance-formula. An honest and earnest exercise by a first-time filmmaker, Dr Biju (a Homeo Doctor), the film does not tell us anything we did not know of.
Yes-Fundamentalism and Alienation of a people are not the creation of the fanatics alone, but the establishment (yes, the sarkar) adds to it.

Outbreaks of violence often end up as Statistics and appointment of Enquiry Commissions, which keep extending the deadline, till another major event creates a blip in public memory. 'Say a lie a hundred times it b'comes the truth,' so said Goebbels. Yes, our govts repeatedly carry out this exercise, so a victim of rape (during communal riots. Mind you, in this film it is a journalist reporting the visit of a Swamiji) is vulnerable to state-terrorism because she had earlier interviewed a wanted terrorist leader in an unknown forest area. It does not take long for the police to build a case to suit the situation-follow the scoop and they identify the 'Muslim' editor and Saira's colleague Altaf, as intermediaries. That is enough to corner the 'woman' journalist. If she does not cooperate, then the lawmakers have the liberty to violate her person, till life is snuffed out!!

The interesting twist and the ray of hope lies in the refusal of Saira's father to accept the help offered by the terrorist leader(he is the self-appointed saviour of the community). But the question is, how many people can cope with this pressure from the community only to count as the first suspect whenever there is communal violence.

A theme such as this has often been handled in Malayalam Cinema, but the m'ge has got lost in the desire to adopt the easy path to pander to populist demands of entertainment and formula films!