It is not an easy task to remake an already loved and acclaimed film which is still quite fresh in the memory of the viewers. Cargo (2019) fame Arati Kadav takes up the ambitious task of adapting the critically acclaimed 2021 Malayalam film titled The Great Indian Kitchen, written and directed by Jeo Baby, for the Hindi-speaking audiences with Mrs. Does she succeed in stirring up the same emotions? Let’s find out.
Story:
Richa (Sanya Malhotra) is a passionate dancer by profession and has her own dance troupe as well. When she meets a (seemingly) mild-mannered Diwakar (Nishant Dahiya) – a gynaecologist by profession, in an arranged marriage setup, she gets butterflies in her stomach during the initial interactions. Soon, she gets married to him and enters his household with her eyes full of dreams, hopes, and anticipation of what her future would be like. “Aaj se aap hamari beti hain (From today, you are our daughter),” says the father-in-law (Kanwaljit Singh) with the most unassuming smile. As a newly-wed woman, Richa tries to understand and adjust to her new roles and responsibilities, always eager and willing to help out her mother-in-law (Aparna Ghoshal) in the kitchen. However, when she has to leave the town to visit her pregnant daughter and be with her till her delivery, Richa must step in her mother-in-law’s shoes and not just manage the household chores, but also perfect them, without taking any “shortcuts” (for example: the chutney has to be grinded using a mortar and pestle, and not the mixer grinder; the clothes have to be washed manually, and not in the washing machine; the biryani has to be slow-cooked to perfection, and not made in a pressure cooker since the latter is pulav; the phulkas have to be served hot off the tava, and not from the hot case; and so on). Her enthusiastic eagerness soon turns into a mechanical, thankless job of servitude with no space for consideration of her feelings, her passion, or anything else that takes her identity beyond the kitchen and household chores.
Review:
Director Arati Kadav has done a fine job at adapting the Malayalam original for a wider set of audiences in Mrs. While there’s little scope for deviating from the source material, she still tries to add subtle but effective touches to drive the message home. Those who’ve watched the original may argue that Mrs isn’t as hard-hitting and raw as The Great Indian Kitchen, but the fact is that the film still works and stands on its own, delivering on a subdued, subtle, but quite impactful screenplay. Most of the movie follows in the footsteps of its source material, however, Kadav, along with writers Anu Singh Choudhary and Harman Baweja, has added ingenious and distinctive elements to the screenplay that not only adapt it to a different milieu but also uplift the narrative. Whether it is the analogy of women being equivalent to prime numbers, i.e., having the ability to be divided (read decimated) only by themselves (or one); or the running metaphor about patriarchy in a leaking pipe under the kitchen basin caused by a corroded plumbing system that is in dire need to be fixed, the trio has done a fine job in adapting the story for the masses.
It’s not everyday that you get to witness such a strong feminist take that makes you extremely uncomfortable, furious, and appalled at the deep-rooted patriarchal, sexist, and misogynist mind-set of seemingly progressive, modern, and educated men that take the copious amount of labour expected out of women in order to run the household as something they’re “supposed to” do while it’s the men who have “real” jobs as they step out to work. Richa’s ambition of taking up a job to become a dance teacher is dismissed with an expectation-filled-suggestion masked as an example that her mother-in-law has a doctorate in Economics but she gave it up to look after her family and kids. Through several tactful sequences, Kadav highlights how the women in the family are relegated to being second-class citizens in their own home while the men in the house don’t even bend to fetch their own footwear. It’s quite a difficult task to make a film replete with such gorgeous shots of delicious food being cooked and still make the viewer feel repulsive. While Jeo Baby did it brilliantly in The Great Indian Kitchen, Kadav does sanitize it a bit in Mrs, but still manages to make us feel equally revolted, if not more, and that is no small feat considering the impressive work of the food stylists in the remake.
However, the concluding song and choreography doesn’t quite hit the mark when it comes to conveying the feeling of liberation that the makers had apparently hoped for. Sanya, who is herself quite an amazing dancer, tries her best to do justice to the steps but is let down by an underwhelmingly choreographed dance set piece. The music and the lyrics – both are a major let down, especially in the penultimate moments of the film which doesn’t quite have the cathartic impact that it should have had in the end. The background score of the film is decent, but becomes overbearing at a couple of places. Pratham Mehta’s cinematography is apt while Prerna Saigal does a commendable job at the editor’s table in keeping the one hour 45 minutes duration of the film quite engaging.
Sanya Malhotra plays Richa with a lot of innocence and just the right amount of rebellion. In, arguably, her best performance on screen, Sanya has managed to hit every single note of her character with perfection. You feel the optimism in her eyes, and witness it changing into frustration with the passage of time. You feel her disgust when she unclogs the drain with her bare hands and tries to get rid of the repugnant feeling by repeatedly shaking off her palm. You feel the anger and frustration building up inside her with every scrumptious meal she cooks and every attempt she makes at winning the nod of approval from the men of the house at the dining table. Watch out for a heartbreaking scene where she hesitantly decides to sleep on the sofa after being exhausted post her kitchen duties just so that she doesn’t have to enter her bedroom to perform her “wife duties” once the lights go out. Sanya doesn’t miss a single beat in any of the scenes and uplifts the narrative with her impressive performance.
Nishant Dahiya as Diwakar does a fair job but somehow feels a bit underprepared in some scenes. He doesn’t quite manage to become as intimidating as Suraj Venjaramoodu did as the husband in The Great Indian Kitchen. However, his character does manage to make you furious but that’s more because of the way it is written, rather than performed. Kanwaljit Singh nails it as Richa’s father-in-law and the patriarch of the family. His “Beta jis” coupled with a borderline sinister smile make you hate him to the core and that’s a definite win for the way he’s portrayed his character. Varun Badola in a short appearance and effective performance, manages to infuriate you even more, hitting the nail just where it hurts.
Verdict:
Those of you who haven’t watched the original, should definitely watch Mrs (first, and then, may be, the original Malayalam film). Those of you who have, can also give it a chance for a decent adaptation that hits home for the most parts.
Mrs
Watch On: ZEE5
Director: Arati Kadav
Writers: Anu Singh Choudhary, Harman Baweja
Cast: Sanya Malhotra, Nishant Dahiya, Kanwaljit Singh
Rating: 3 stars
