‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ takes us into, well, the kitchen. Specifically, the less glamorous reality of kitchens where someone is always slicing, dicing, cooking, wiping, and cleaning, where that someone will mostly be a woman, be it your mom, wife, or even you.
Yes, it is about the kitchens where women work tirelessly day and night, yet there’s nothing remotely “great” about it. Although the movie is in Malayalam, it feels like a hidden camera inside any average Indian household, showing the everyday sexism women face, no matter where they live or what language they speak.
In the film, the characters are referred to as wives and husbands, a clever way to generalise their roles and show that the story represents the lives of many. The choice to not name the characters also subtly conveys that ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ is essentially the story of the quintessential Indian housewife. It hints at how a wife’s identity often becomes overshadowed by her husband’s after marriage.
Inside the Great Indian Kitchen
The film opens in the kitchen, capturing the protagonist, played by Nimisha Sajayan, joyfully dancing while she prepares the snacks. Her family is busy making arrangements for a “pennu kaanal” (a customary visit by a potential groom and his family for an arranged marriage). Enter Suraj Venjaramoodu’s character, the prospective husband.
The couple’s marriage unfolds much like an arranged marriage would. The real story starts from the first day of post-marriage. From then on, the focus shifts predominantly to the kitchen, with the woman and the viewer feeling trapped in its confines. In the first 30 minutes, we witness her dedicating her entire day to household chores and preparing food in the kitchen. The men enjoy the fresh, hot meals, leaving behind plates and food waste. It’s the women who then tidy up, clearing the mess. This cycle continues with cleaning the house, lighting lamps in the front yard, and preparing dinner. Day in and day out, the routine remains the same.
The boring yet concerning reality
As viewers, we might find it boring to watch the same cycle of chores. We’re constantly observing her work tirelessly with no change in her routine, leaving no room for her own hobbies or interests. Then, in the nights, her focus shifts to pleasing her husband.
Why do they keep showing her doing the same thing every single day? What’s the point of this movie, and where is it even headed? These questions mirror precisely how the woman feels. She feels trapped in a never-ending loop. It’s a slapping reminder of the monotonous and underappreciated reality that many women endure, particularly within a patriarchal environment.
The Male entitlement perpetuated by generations
On the first morning after their wedding, the wife prepares tea for her husband. After he finishes it, he leaves the cup near the washbasin. Despite being right there, he doesn’t wash it himself. Instead, the wife takes care of it.
After every meal, the husband and father-in-law leave the dining table messy, with food waste left behind, unconcerned about the women who have to clean up after them. You might think the husband lacks basic manners, but that’s not true. In another scene, we see him eating neatly at a restaurant, placing leftovers on a side plate instead of dirtying the table. It’s simply male entitlement at play. An arrogant confidence that no matter how messy he leaves the table, there’s always a woman to clean up after him.
The irony lies in the fact that he pays for a service at a restaurant, including having the staff serve him food and clean up the table. However, at home, it is simply unpaid labour for women disguised as an “ideal wife duty.” When his wife confronts him about his double standard regarding table manners, he becomes defensive, asserting his right to behave as he pleases at home.
In the restaurant scene, we also notice the wife sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with her husband at a table, a privilege she never experiences at home. At home, the food is served first for the men of the house, fresh and hot from the pot. Meanwhile, the wife is left to eat the cold leftovers.
The period taboo
For centuries, the tradition of oppressing women by labelling them as impure during their periods has persisted. When the wife informs her husband about her period, his immediate concern is who will handle the cooking and cleaning. So, her in-laws confine her to a dingy storage room until her period ends. She isn’t even permitted to sleep on a bed because, according to their belief, her impurity during menstruation would make anything she touches impure as well. They say it’s too much trouble to wash the bed.
And it’s not even the men who say this. It’s an older woman who’s passing judgement. It reveals how deeply rooted extreme beliefs against women can be, even within the minds of other women.
The Great Indian Kitchen: The oppression of women
In one scene, the father-in-law advises her against getting a job, saying that being a housewife is more honourable and meaningful than the jobs of politicians and business people. But right after that, we see her washing his underwear! Oh, the irony of it all!
When the daughter-in-law tries to wash her father-in-law’s clothes in the washing machine, he worries they might get damaged and asks her to wash them by hand instead. He also likes chutney made the old-fashioned way, by grinding it by hand. It shows that some patriarchs have reservations about employing modern conveniences, which they believe diminish women’s workload.
The background music
There’s also no background music in the film. Instead, we hear the sounds of plates clattering, the whistle of the cooker, and, most importantly, the constant drip of water from a leaky kitchen pipe. The wife keeps asking her husband to call a plumber to fix it, but he repeatedly forgets throughout the movie. Despite the wife’s persistent reminders, he continues to ignore them because a leaky kitchen pipe doesn’t affect him. He hardly ever steps foot in the kitchen and doesn’t see the mess under the washbasin. It’s the wife who ends up changing the wet carpets and dealing with the leaking dirty water daily.
In the movie’s climax, the wife, fuming with anger, serves the men the leaked, murky washbasin water instead of tea. She then locks them in the kitchen, a place they never cared to enter but were keen to confine their women to. She leaves for good, and despite her mother urging her to apologise and return, she refuses. And then she starts a new life as a dance teacher.
The husband doesn’t change. Following his marriage to another woman, we see him leaving the teacup by the washbasin instead of washing it. It suggests that his new wife is destined to encounter the same treatment.
The closing thoughts on The Great Indian Kitchen
“The Great Indian Kitchen” accurately replicates on screen the gender abuse we often overlook in our daily lives and how women are exploited between the four walls of the kitchen. While this story is set in Kerala, the issues raised by the film are universally relatable. The husband and father-in-law we see here are more like everyday men you could encounter anywhere, not just in Kerala or India. Their patriarchal attitudes are sadly common worldwide.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are based on the writer’s insights, supported by data and resources available both online and offline, as applicable. Changeincontent.com is committed to promoting inclusivity across all forms of content, which we define broadly to include media, policies, law, and history—encompassing all elements that influence the lives of women and gender-queer individuals. Our goal is to promote understanding and advocate for comprehensive inclusivity.
