Disclosure: This article (with few edits) also published within the organization I work for. Posted here with permission from organization
The Great Indian Kitchen is a Malayalam language movie released 15th Jan 2021 on NeeStream, a Malayalam OTT platform, with subtitles.
Official Trailer:
Watching The Great Indian Kitchen (TGIK) is an experience in itself. There are movies, well-made ones, that talk about social issues in a hard-hitting way. They do stay in our heads days after we watched them. While they force us to think, they do not make us uncomfortable. Because there is a distance between us and the characters in the movie – most times we do not identify with the characters who are perpetrators of the social injustice either because they are violent or blatantly abusive. Not so the case with TGIK. TGIK enters our home and stays there. It is there in the kitchen, bedroom, and the living room. Irrespective of the gender, there will be a scene or another you and I will connect to. It will prick our conscience; make us squirm. It will force us to start seeing our relationships in a new light.
The title The Great Indian Kitchen itself is a misleading title. Going by the title we expect a movie about exotic, delicious, mouth-watering Kerala food. With the opening intercut between dance class and montage shots of food preparation, it does trick us in expecting a story like that. With few quick jump cuts, it moves from dance class to Pennu Kaanal (bride seeing event) to marriage, and we enter the bridegroom’s household along with newly married wife. Then on in a clinical precision, a deliberate slow pace of narration, and long stretches director pulls the rug under our feet. For next 1 hour. It is not about food. It is about what happens behind cooking. What it takes to get the food on the table. Wife is the first one to get up in the morning. She chops. She slices. She minces. Frying. Grinding. Grind in stone grinder. Cook rice in hearth. Clang of dishes being washed. Breakfast. Lunch. Wash clothes. Evening snack. Followed by dinner. A leaky sink. Wash and clean the kitchen. Involuntary participation in sex. Get up early next morning. Repeat the chores. No time for herself. Day in and day out. In the name of family. In the name of duty. In the name of tradition. Along with her we are also numbed with the routine drudgery of housework. Slowly she descents into domestic slavery. Solitary confinement. Gradually we realize the sarcasm in the title of the movie. This is a story about everywoman. To drive home the point, director does not give names to the characters including the wife and the husband. That makes the story universal.
Bad marriage does not mean there need to be a husband who beats his wife. In TGIK, there is no physical abuse or raising of the voices. There is no outwardly menacing manners or physical threats. Men in the movie are soft spoken. Even when gaslighting happens, it is done in a subtle, mild manner. Abuse is subtle and hard to identify, it is practiced in the cloak of custom, rituals, love, family honor, and women protection. And in the name of purity. Director takes on the regressive notions of impurity associated with menstruation. Like the saying death by thousand cuts, here the humiliations are minor cuts to the mind, to dignity. Multiple of them. Over a period. Our everywoman wants to work. There is no outright rejection by the husband, but he will decide when to apply and when to work (that is being progressive in his world view). They calmly impose their will on her. Even apology is extracted in a warm manner. Everywoman is not allowed to have her opinions or desires. There are only two choices, conform or leave. Some women become submissive and perform their duties day in and day out. In TGIK for the wife with no name the rage swells inside her. We wait for the explosion. When it does happen, it is explosive and exhilarating. As she walks on the beach tasting freedom getting out of the patriarchal imprisonment, we get a poignant shot where few women are protesting for the traditions to continue.
Even though we sit through an hour of mind-numbing repetitive grind, visually it is made stunning thanks to the vision of Jeo Baby, the director (TGIK is a director’s movie), and cinematographer Salu K Thomas. His choice of shots, wide shots, close-ups, top angle, tracking shots, along with minimal dialogues and natural sound design, gets the message right in to our sensory system. To me the whole movie felt perfect. There is a beautiful stretch where we see marriage photos of earlier generations to the background sound of dripping water, chopping of vegetables, clank of plates being scrubbed, sloshing of clothes. Nimisha Sajayan as everywoman, and Suraj Venjaramoodu as everyman, have given an outstanding performance, they get into the skin of their characters.
Some of us would have experienced oppression. Some of us may not. We all know that discriminatory practices vary across regions and societies. Those of us who have not experienced it form a vision and understanding of oppression through the stories we hear. But the stories, like many others, are impacted by power equation. It depends on who tells the stories. Rather who gets to tell the stories. Remember, we have stories about kings and queens but none on peasants. In most of the stories, the perpetrators are easy to identify, with overt traits and abusive practices. But high percentage of oppression happens in a subtle manner cloaked in scriptures, word of god, karma, tradition, family, and love. TGIK calls this bluff in an unflinching manner. One TGIK is not enough, we need many stories like these. Stories from different sections of the Society. Regions. Race. Gender. Age groups. For this to happen, we need an Inclusive society. Inclusive environment. All voices need to be heard and listened to. Without inclusion, we will get only a flattened view of the world.
I highly recommend this movie to everyone. Watch it with the family. Discuss at the dinner table. I assure you, TGIK will be a conversation starter.
Wondering if self dependency can solve this but this happens to educated and working class as well.
This is not just between husband and wife. It’s between every member of the house (not just family).
At home, mom does household chores everyday without holiday that is also bad. Similar oppression happens to men as well.
We are conditioned to expect and accept that as norm.
May be just giving a chat (doing nothing) when they are doing household chores can help. I tell this and do it for a day and do nothing after that for months 🙁
I feel deciding what should be the meal 3 times a day is very difficult. When asked I would say “don’t ask me I will eat anything” But at the end what’s made should taste well and not be repeatative 🙁