Bhubaneswar: The movie Mrs is the official Hindi remake of the original path breaking Malayalam Film ‘ The Great Indian Kitchen’ of Jeo Baby. The film is representing the innumerable sacrifice of women and how the kitchen is the ground for her unpaid labour and service to the men. It is the reflexive mindset that shows the irrelevance of women as fellow human beings by their male counterparts.
The newly married brides or for that matter the women in general are nameless post marriage as someone ‘s wife only. The movie represents the situation of countless Indian women and their ordeals post marriage. The movie is directed by Arati Kadav, whose last feature film was the terrific ‘Cargo’. The director retells the story in a slightly generic manner than the original Malayalam film ‘ The Great Indian Kitchen’ with the protagonist character played by Sanya Malhotra. The story is transplanted somewhere near Delhi, where a dancer named Richa has an arranged marriage with a gynecologist named Divakar played by Nishant Dahiya. Divakar runs a nursing home alongwith his father who is also a doctor.
Richa comes into her new home with bright eyes, dreaming of a life happily ever after. But on the first day itself reality hits her. She goes on with helping her mother-in-law in the kitchen and the situation worsens when her mother-in-law leaves her daughter in her delivery. The burden of running the house solely falls on the soldiers of Richa. When she requests for a helping hand she was denied by her husband specially. The real face of the husband is revealed when he slowly goes from amiable and affectionate to a hard core patriarch.
There are some sort of newness in Mrs from the original as it shows a relative rhythm. The editors of the film Arati Kadav and Prerna Saigal have leaned into a relative rhythm that showcases the usual conditioning of the people in society. The preparation of food, the elaborate recipe and focus on culinary twists back the manner the protagonist puts an effort to please her entitled husband and even her more entitled father-in-law, played by Kanwaljit Singh, who exactly has the right touch of authoritativeness.
The Father- in- law is always seen addressing Richa as daughter but he is completely oblivious to her wish, aspirations like his son. The feelings of the girl are irrelevant as long as both the father and son get warm and tasty food in time.
The power of the story is that it gives a strong massage through the ordinary day to day household setup. The impact bevo es slightly deleted because of its border stroke. The writers Harman Baweja and Anu Singh Choudhary have adapted the film with an underlying moment and spelling the message clearly.
The friend of the protagonist Richa has a green flag husband who is the contrast to her own. Richa stumbles with the age-old stigmas of society when one of her friends tells by quoting her mother ‘ jiske husband nahin hote good luck nahin hota’ ( one who does not have a husband has no boon). The story justifies the stigmas by these running metaphors throughout.
Arati is a very talented film maker and the brightest star in the film is Sanya Malhotra. She starts as a bubly, sweet bride, full of aspirations for life and wants dearly to make her relationship work. But her wills and aspirations are wearing away in front of her eyes. There is something disarming and vulnerable about her as an actor. Her performance has no strain. Richa is the girl next door who is breaking a little each day as she cooks, cleans, and serves by forgetting her own dreams. When she breaks down completely her anguish comes out. Sanya is an actor who deserves to be seen.
-OdishaAge
