The not so Great Indian Kitchen

I am a person who relies on reviews before viewing a movie. The storyline of the movie The Great Indian Kitchen and the rave reviews it got from film critics got me intrigued. Has our society really become this sensitive while I was busy resolving the mundane in my life? I had to watch the movie. From the reviews, got to know the new OTT platform Nee Streams where the movie was streaming. Within 15 minutes, daughter aged 17 left the room saying she couldn’t sit through the disgusting, repeatitive frames of this kitchen tale. From the corners of my eyes I saw husband too making a casual escape muttering something about the slow pace of the movie and predicting the content. He isn’t one who reads movie reviews. I sat through the movie alone with a myriad thoughts playing hide and seek at the back of my head; anger, empathy, complacence, humour and most of all disgust at the drudgeries of the housewife (btw, career women are also housewives) of the great Indian kitchen. During the 1 hour 40 minutes it crossed my mind several times Is the hype about the movie real? It is still difficult for me to digest a movie of this genre, star cast and rhythm really got the attention it deserves. Who might have seen the movie? Rather how many? What percentage of the OTT watching crowd would have subscribed to Nee stream over Netflix and Prime? I strongly felt the reviews were all paid publicity albeit for a good cause. It is hard not to identify with the protagonist, if you are a woman. Even the most privileged women, who never ever have to enter a kitchen or those who cook in an Italian marble laid modular kitchen will see glimpses of themselves at various points of the movie. The movie is not about the physical Indian kitchen. Its the mindset, the deep rooted patriarchy, the hypocrisy behind the eulogy stay at home wives are subjected to, as the lifeline of a family or household. Deep down it all tickles down to passivity, insensitivity and a lust for convenience. The slow pace of the movie is deliberate as is the detailed portrayal of the mundane chores in the kitchen like cutting vegetables, making dosa and grinding chutney in a stone grinder. It kind of builds up a restlessness, unfruitful indulgence and disgust which will make many get up and walk out of the movie after a few scenes. That’s the whole point. If you can’t watch it for 15 minutes, how do women go through it day after day, week after week and year after year without break? The story takes on a natural flow of events starting from a matrimonial meeting to how a girl who probably grew up in a very different backdrop adapts to her new family and household without complain or rather willingly. The women in the film cater to the minutest need of the men in the family while the men only focus on their comfort and enjoyment. When the protagonist wants to apply for a job, the father-in-law sweetly tells her how managing a house is more glorious than managing a company and hence no need to apply for a job. When she suggests a bit of a foreplay so that she could also enjoy conjugal pleasures, her husband makes her feel promiscuous for even knowing about it. Even a casual comment on his table manners in a restaurant as opposed to the lack of it at home, hurts his fragile ego and send him into a sulking mode until his wife apologizes for her misdemeanor. She not only has to scrub off chewed up drumsticks from the table, she also has to assuage his ego. Doesn’t it all sound too familiar? Subtlety is the beauty of this movie. The men don’t raise their voice, yet we know who calls the shot. Women, who are often at the receiving end are both a product and perpetrator of patriarchy by being part of it until they decide to climb down the pedestal and decide to live life as they wish. Nimisha as the female protagonist is brilliant in her acting as usual. Suraj Venjaramoodu once again proves he is much more than the comic relief he was once known for. The direction, screenplay and background music is all spot on. I only wish they had kept the Sabarimala issue for another day.