The Great Indian Kitchen

The film opens with a girl (Nimisha Sajayan) dancing while the scene intercuts to her bride-seeing ceremony. She is now married to a school teacher (Suraj Venjaramood) from a conservative Hindu family. The family consists of the husband, his parents and the newly wedded wife. Her mother-in-law moves into her pregnant daughter's house while the newly wedded wife is handed over the kitchen duties. She struggles to be the submissive wife that her husband and his family expect her to be as they are still believing in norms surrounding menstruation and are reluctant to let her get employment. Things take an ugly turn when the husband decides to visit Sabarimala, which requires him to take celibacy and avoid eating food touched by menstruating women, this results in a series of events ending with the wife leaving the husband's home and going back to her parents. The film ends with a scene showing her as an independent dance teacher arriving in her own car while her husband is married again and the second wife seems to meet the first one's fate, which she seems to enjoy.

• Nimisha Sajayan as the Wife
• Suraj Venjaramoodu as the Husband
• T. Suresh Babu as Achan[4]
• Ramadevi as Ammayi
• Kabani as Usha, the servant
• Sidhartha Siva as the husband's cousin

The shooting of the film started on July 11, 2020 at Kozhikkode. The whole story of the movie was shot within a house except one scene which was shot outdoors. The film's principal cast includes several theatre artistes from Calicut.[5]

The film was directly released on NeeStream, a Malayalam OTT platform on 15 January 2021.[6] Several mainstream OTT platforms including Amazon Prime and Netflix and television channels rejected the film due to the sensitive content regarding Sabarimala issue in the film.[7]

Upon release, it received positive reactions from various film critics and was well received by the audience. Litty Simon of Malayala Manorama has written that, "The excellent direction, well-written characters and seasoned performances with insightful message makes The Great Indian Kitchen a fulfilling experience."[8] Anjana George of The Times of India praised, "The Great Indian Kitchen comes as an eye-opener, at a time many women are still judged for their cooking skills than any other capabilities. It not only talks about the new-gen women who question such unsung slavery but is also a tribute to the women who have been silently managing it inside every home for centuries."[9] Soumya Rajendran of The News Minute has effused, "The Great Indian Kitchen rips through patriarchy, the bedrock of the institutions of family and religion."[10]

S. R. Praveen of The Hindu said that 'Actors Nimisha Sajayan and Suraj Venjaramoodu are excellent in this hard-hitting take on the sheer drudgery of everyday life, that many women go through.[11] Sajin Shrijith of The New Indian Express wrote: "This film made me want to talk to every woman in my family and ask them how they handled their frustrations and why some of them never dared to question their men?."[12] Anushka Pathania of Republic TV wrote: The Great Indian Kitchen is a take on the patriarchy and how deeply it is rooted in our society, making it difficult for the modern woman to live her life on her own term".[13] Haricharan Pudipeddi of Hindustan Times wrote: The Great Indian Kitchen has to be the most powerful film on patriarchy in recent years and it makes for a very important watch. Its lead actor Nimisha Sajayan is unbelievably convincing.[14] Sify has rated The Great Indian Kitchen as 4 stars out of 5 and has written the film as an excellent family drama.[15] Boobby Sing from The Free Press Journal rated the film four in a scale of five and described it as an "unusually exceptional film that makes you feel the guilt."[16]

• The Great Indian Kitchen at IMDb