The Great Indian Kitchen - Recipe for disaster

 

The Great Indian Kitchen

2021, Malayalam

Director: Jeo Baby

Stars: Nimisha Sajayan, Sooraj Venjaramoodu, T Suresh Babu, Ajitha, Kabani

Mohan's Measure ⭐⭐

If we are to truly fully understand the depth ancient culture, we must be willing acknowledge its weaknesses and vices and grow from them.  

Using the backdrop of the controversies surrounding the Sabarimalai Ayyappa Temple, The Great Indian Kitchen is unusual for Malayalam cinema, in that it is a Hindu story.  But, within it are the stories of all Indian women and their denial of themselves in an effort to build a happy home.

Ms. Sajayan provides us with some fine acting as the new bride in a traditional Hindu home, whose anger lies not in the tradition, and not even in the drudgery of the day-to-day obligations of a homemaker. What makes her angry is being simply treated as a second-class citizen by the men. 

There is no physical or emotional abuse at work here.  There are just words, offered with little thought by men who do not respect or even understand human dignity, which scriptures say is the birthright of each and every human being, irrelevant of gender.

While Mr. Venjaramoodu attempts to act this out, his comedic expressions don't make it work.  There is a awkwardness about him, a feeling that he is not taking a serious film seriously enough.  He is not intended to be the bumbling husband, but he certainly comes across that way.

The problem with this film, however, is not as much the acting as it is the story.  I understand the need to show the tedium in a homemaker's life, but it is show repeatedly, as though it has to be drilled into us.  There are important scenes of the film that are shown too quickly, and others shown without closure.  The ending is obvious, but with such a choppy plot, it feels anticlimactic.

We are left with a mish-mash of ideas as messy as the dishes the men stack in the sink.