Mrs: The Great Indian Kitchen Adaptation Is Just As Effective

AARTI KADAV'S Mrs is an adaptation of Jeo Baby’s The Great Indian Kitchen. Like the 2021 Malayalam-language film, it unfolds largely within the precincts of a kitchen and focuses on the labour of cooking to underscore the stilted gendered act it is in a patriarchal society. In Baby’s film, the rot is so insidious that no one is outrightly villainised yet the narrative builds up to an arc of rebellion. Kadav’s outing reiterates every beat; any accompanying exhaustion is offset by the fact that a film like The Great Indian Kitchen, whose only conflict is gender disparity, is being retold in another language and backed by a major studio. Watch Mrs movie online now on OTTplay 

Richa (Sanya Malhotra) lives in Delhi with her parents. The opening credit has her dancing to a song (to her own beats) till an arranged marriage set up is revealed. Two pairs of eyes meet while sharing Wi-Fi password and soon Richa and Diwakar (Nishant Dahiya) get married. In her in-laws house, Richa’s designated spot is the kitchen. She takes it up without qualms. She has seen her mother do it, she can see her mother-in-law do it. Diwakar is a doctor and his schedule dictates the lives of the women in the family. His father, a retired doctor (Kanwaljit Singh) likes things a certain way. His wife follows that and Richa too has to abide.

Written by Harman Baweja and Anu Singh Choudhary, Mrs is a faithful retelling where the conflicts are translated into the present cultural context. Therefore, Kadav brings in a caste angle (handled lightly), the language of oppression leans more on familiar passive-aggressive acts (like Richa’s father-in-law asking her not to step out and work) and the woman whose being altered in the process of a marriage stands as a mute spectator to her own life.

Kadav, who previously helmed the wondrous Cargo (2019) orchestrates her filmmaking to echo the messaging. The pacing is a thing of wonder as one montage seamlessly follows another (Prerna Saigal is the editor) and the act of cooking is initially depicted with all its romanticism till the rose-tinted glasses are removed and a leaking pipe comes to the frame. The film assumes a subtlety in these stretches which is admirable given that it leans on excess later. I quite liked how the filmmaker treated the difference in the consequences when a man has a bad day as opposed to the woman. Or the way it probes the undersides of affection and reveals it to be subjugation. Post marriage Diwakar keeps referring to Richa as “biwi” (wife), a term of endearment but also a sign of her identity being subsumed in the arrangement.

The narrative is imbued with these indicative gestures but my grouse with the film titled Mrs, it resists going deep into Richa’s character. What we know of her are basic details. Like, she loves to dance, her best friend’s name is Bubbles (there is one scene where she blocks her and then reconnects her later although the reason is not shown) and she feels increasingly cornered in the household.

Granted that the original film too did not have these details but the opportunity to retell a story also opens up the possibilities for saying it differently while saying it well.

This of course is not to imply that Mrs loses the sheen in translation. It could be the responsive themes the film is stacked up with but several scenes in the Hindi adaptation have the visceral effect that the original had. Much of this is due to Kadav’s attentive eye (like Richa’s mother-in-law keeping a check on the fact that she nibbles while cooking and brings it back as a cruel remark from a relative) and the performances. I quite enjoyed Singh’s performance as the old patriarch who expresses empathy with such disdain like he is offering cruelty. Dahiya too is reliably good but the film stands on Malhotra’s shoulders.

She is terrific as Richa, a woman who enters a marriage not knowing what to expect. Her face has always been evocative but here she uses it to express a myriad of emotions ranging from disgust to rage. She adapts her physicality to bring in an urgency and later exhaustion that is tremendous in how effortless it feels. If Mrs stands on its own feet it is because an actor like Malhotra has its back.

Mrs is currently streaming on Zee5.