Credit Where Its Due: The Great Indian Kitchen Did It First
With Sanya Malhotra’s 'Mrs.' getting applauded everywhere, have we forgotten the brilliance of 'The Great Indian Kitchen'?
It always happens, isn’t it?
A celebrated film from the South (that unfortunately hasn’t been viewed enough across the country) gets remade in Hindi and suddenly, the remake takes centre stage. While gushing for the Hindi version we somehow end up ignoring the original version simply because it’s in a language not spoken by as many.
A recent example being the Sanya Malhotra-starrer, Mrs..
It’s a wonderful movie, absolutely. Malhotra is one of your finest young actors, often underrated despite repeatedly coming up with performances that hit all the right notes. Since her debut in Dangal, she’s enacted fantastic performances one after the other. She’s getting rave reviews yet again for Mrs., and she deserves all that praise for sure.
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But for people hailing it as the fantastic feministic film that is, why aren’t they also talking about The Great Indian Kitchen, the Malayalam film it’s a remake of?
It was during those dreadful COVID-19 induced lockdown days that I came across The Great Indian Kitchen on Amazon Prime Video. Since I don’t speak or understand Malayalam, I saw the film with subtitles, having no expectations whatsoever. We were all locked-in at home and there was nowhere to go so why not watch a ‘random’ movie I knew nothing about, right?
I’ll never forget the emotions I experienced while watching the movie. I couldn’t move. I was angry. Filled with rage. I wanted to scream at the male characters in the movie. I couldn’t help but remember a million instances of seeing my mother slaving in the kitchen, while the rest of us didn’t lift a finger to help her. I’m proud to call myself a feminist but even then, I had to question my inner patriarchal upbringing that didn’t allow me to understand the many ways in which women are tied down within their own homes.
The Great Indian Kitchen was hardly a source of ‘entertainment’ - it was a shock to the system and an urge to do better. Jio Baby (the director) brilliantly used the kitchen as a hotbed for everyday sexism in a way that one wouldn’t have even imagined. Nimisha Sajayan as the lead, unnamed character was extraordinary, and I’ve been a fan since.
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I’ve always recommended this movie to men and women I’ve interacted with - it’s one of the finest cinematic experiences I’ve had. Which is why, to see the kind of celebration coming the way of Mrs. (rightfully deserved, might I add), I can’t help but feel bad that a majority of our country never gave the same kind of flowers to The Great Indian Kitchen.
So, congratulate Sanya Malhotra for a wonderful performance but don’t forget to mention Nimisha Sajayan in the same tweet/post. Absolutely recommend Mrs. to every one you know but also ask them to watch the original, The Great Indian Kitchen first. It's the least we could do.