The Great Indian Kitchen2021

“Definition of Family is the durable association of a wife and a husband, with or without children” This is what is taught in a school where husband teaches. But unfortunately the durability is never seen as Wife (Married recently) becomes or to be precise, made to feel vulnerable or a slave. The initial scenes were masterful in letting me feel that she’s going into a great family and she’s looking all happy running the kitchen and other chores. This back and forth of multiple scenes of women working in the kitchen (Phenomenal sound mixing and editing here)  and men relaxing reading newspaper or doing yoga is in itself a powerful patriarchal imagery setup that was put in my mind. It’s brilliance in writing where slowly I felt that this patriarchal phase is going to another level but it’s all subtle without saying much, as in less dialogues. Such imagery has been stitched in our mind that we don’t have to shout “Patriarchy”. Character development of a wife is very orderly, as in organic way. Which is why I really felt that anger towards the in-laws and their outdated traditions. To be very informal, i personally wanted to slap them. Not only they live in a big old house with old cooking traditions, ancient way of washing clothes but their minds are also stuck in that outdated and filthy sexist world who produced this unfortunate cycle of patriarchal societies. Overall Solid writing really made me feel something.  In short, The great Indian kitchen was really not as great as I thought it wud be.  I mean for wife who was actually taking care of her husband and his family with all the chores but in reality she was treated as a slave. Title of the film is appropriately misguided title because in reality we all feel that “Family is very reputable. Girl will be very happy and will have a great life”. But to many women out there, it’s not really great after marriage but unfortunately some will not come out of it and we don’t see the harsh truth. Some of them are so into this patriarchal family that it would have become their routine. They get adjusted to it and in future would teach their daughter or daughter-in-law the same like mother-in-law here in this film.  This cycle of patriarchal generations should come to an end. So I would urge everybody to watch this film. Very impactful and yet again Malayalam cinema gets this sensitive subject so right.