MOVIE REVEW

THE GREAT INDIAN KITCHEN

Patriarchy :- A shiny chokehold of
“dignity” on a woman’s neck.
In my 18 years of life , very rarely had I questioned things that we
taught to me , until I reached the age of 10 I still remember the first
time my mind showed symptoms of this disease named curiosity,
when I saw my father return from the office , sensing my mothers
absence in the house he rolled up his sleeves and entered the
kitchen , fired up the stove and made himself dinner ! What a
supportive and understanding husband one would think prima facie ,
and so they did . The guests sitting in the common hall told me “
what a great down to earth father you have , your mom is lucky to
have an understanding husband like him “ but I was so puzzled they
all spoke to me as if cooking dinner for themselves was such an
achievement for a grown man , but when my mom does it and that
too for the whole family, there are no such remarks , they swallow
her hard work and sometimes even act as a critique of her food
made with love for us , the guests didn’t see that even though my
dad made his dinner it is going to be my mom that going to reset
the messy kitchen , classify the dishes for the house help to wash ,
and make dinner for the whole family tomorrow again. That is when
my dad called me in the kitchen and said “Beta marry a man who
won’t make a big deal out of being a half decent and responsible
human , cooking your own meal is never the standard to identify the
quality of partner . “
That night I thought of all the times when we had guests over and
how the ladies of the house use to work the kitchen like a warrior in
a battle field while men use to indulge in an opinionated gabfest of
the political world in real time , chitter chatter like queens in the
closet room . How in every gathering the room was divided into 3
hierarchical groups:-
1. Men
2. Children
3. Women .
All cluttering in a separate space with only one group serving them
all .
A but similar is how I felt when I watched the movie “The great
Indian kitchen “ . Right off the bat it shows us how
it shows us a scene of the kitchen , I am highlighting this because
we are going to be seeing lot of that place through out the movie . It
sheds a dim light upon how the female protagonist has a life of her
own , almost as to show how short lived it was going to be , another
thing I would like to shed light upon here is how quickly they get
married , one meet , a half awkwardly done conversation and the
scene cuts to the marriage , and that’s it. That is how easily they
decided the female protagonist’s fate . Why? Simply because she
got lucky to be “selected” by such a prestigious family. A lot in the
life of a woman is decided for her in our society which makes me so
sad because are these not the individuals of a democracy too? When
we speak about the constitution being by the people , for the people
and of the people is there a silent implication of women being
partially included as per convenience ? I would like to point out how
watching the movie throughout had been boring to me, I had to
watch the movie twice , revisits scenes and shots to realise the
message it was trying to convey because when it comes to movies
we are all conditioned to only make movies a hit when they interest
us in the first go , if we notice through out the movie there is no
such background music or dramatic effects , just raw shots of reality
, chirping of birds , running of the water tap , the sound of the
pressure cooker whistle blowing , the sound of the lady pouring dosa
on the hot oiled pan , and at last the sound of her rushing through it
all , it is repetitive, again and again the scenes cut from one chore to
another , sometimes it’s her rushing to wash the dishes , sometimes
it’s her cooking , sometimes it’s her serving the food , sometimes
it’s her bending her back to clean the house mop the floor and
sometimes it the sound of heat looks like unanticipated sex -
another chore .
Her once productive life was now brought down to her whole
day dedicated to making others life easier , and during all the times
she did try to speak up she was silenced more so by beliefs and
century old patriarchal rules than words. We also witness this one
scene where the couple is out for a dinner when she sees her
husband practice very obvious table manners and not just throw the
food waste on the table leaving it for the wife to clean , she makes a
joke mentioning how his table manners are only in action outside of
the house and when he is at home he does not practice them, the
result of this was a very angry male protagonist who left his meal
half way telling the wife that it’s his house he will act as he wills , as
if it wasn’t just the most ignorant words to say given the fact that he
does not even clean up after the said mess he claims to do under his
will of acting however he wants in his house . One scene also shows
how the wife tells the husband that every time they indulge in
sexual activities it hurts her and that it would be easier for her if
they had a little foreplay , why I’m pointing this out is also important
because of the response he gives to the lady , he smugly tells her
that he should feel something towards her for them to have the
chemistry for fore play . Imagine being a lady completely dependent
financially on your husband , being a newly wed and hearing your
husband say that , but that is also not what I plan on shedding a
light upon , it’s the fact that the male protagonist goes on to point
out how the wife knows all about fore play and what it means , very
subtly pointing to a possibility that just because she has the
knowledge of it might mean she has been with others before , this is
also a stereotype we imply on women these days connecting a
woman’s innocence , dignity , and chastity to her vagina .
We then come across a very interesting phase in the movie ,
the first time the wife gets her period you can see when she informs
her husband about it , his main concern is if she had worked in the
kitchen at all , not if the wife needs something or if she is in pain .
and for the next few days she was almost as good as the
untouchables .

These are just the just of many things I could point out , when
you first watch this movie it gets boring to sit through the whole
scene of the ladies of this movie washing the cups , or doing chores
but just imagine if it is boring and mundane just through the screen
to be stuck in a loop actually doing this work would be a nightmare .
These world needs more responsible human beings who don’t take
pride in toxic patriarchal norms and more women who speak up like
the female protagonist did . Because a woman’s surrender to
patriarchy has been looked as her greatness but every individual
has their own greatness , only if we were kinder to each other
regardless of the gender , caste , or background we come from . So
as I finish this essay I would only like to say let there light for any
one who seeks it because just like water , individuality is also a birth
right .