KITCHEN SINK REALISM

By telling the story of a woman imprisoned in her kitchen, Jeo Baby’s new film speaks for all women

- Akhila Krishnamurthy

One of the first films to trend and make headlines in 2021, The Great Indian Kitchen is defined by both its empathy and rigour. In one of the Malayalam film’s many powerful scenes, we see the film’s nameless protagonist—symbolic, perhaps, of every Indian woman—smell her hands after a long, arduous day. Besides an abundance of chores, she has had to rustle up three elaborate meals. The strange, unfamiliar smell of her hand—a combination of food, kitchen sink and water from the drainage pipe— disturbs her every day. It is a stark reminder of what her life has, in a sense, become.