‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, a Malayalam film released in 2021, was about the kind of experiences a young middle-class with aspirations goes through after she is married into a family which upholds orthodox values and has a sexist worldview. The Jeo Baby-directed film conveyed a lot of important things without resorting to the tropes one comes across in a film of this nature. You could feel the pain the newly-wedded woman goes through as she gets burdened with the weight of a toxic, patriarchal household that treats her in an inhumane manner. ‘Mrs’, directed by Arati Kadav and featuring Sanya Malhotra in the titular role, is an official remake of the same film.
Richa (Sanya Malhotra) is a Delhi-based young man who is extremely passionate about dance. She lives with her parents and a younger brother. Richa’s parents make her meet Diwakar (Nishant Dahiya) as a part of an arranged marriage proposal. Diwakar is a gynaecologist who has his own clinic. For this meeting, Diwakar is accompanied by his father Ashwin Kumar (Kanwaljit Singh) and mother Meena (Aparna Ghoshal). The meeting goes well and Richa and Diwakar decide to get married. Once Richa moves into her in-laws’ house, she realizes they are extremely conservative, dominating and repressive. Richa’s mother-in-law Meena believes it is the duty of a woman to look after the needs of her husband. When Meena goes to meet her daughter and live with her for a few days, all the responsibilities of the household fall on Richa’s shoulders. While Richa tries her best to be sincere with her household duties, Diwakar and Ashwin never feel satisfied with anything she does. When Richa wishes to apply for a part-time job as a dance teacher in a school, her husband and father-in-law do not approve of it. With time, things get worse and Richa starts feeling as if she is living inside a cage.
‘Mrs’ is an adaptation and not a scene-by-scene remake of ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’. As compared to the original film, ‘Mrs’ has a glossier look to it. That, however, does not mean it fails to convey the message it means to. The film depicts the kind of struggle several women in the country and the sacrifices they have to make to fit into a particular household.
The original film had a length of 1 hour and 40 minutes. This is just 6 minutes longer. However, there are many elements that help us differentiate between the two films. While the original film was set in a small city in Kerala, this one is based in Delhi. The writers () have put in a lot of effort to get the cultural nuances right. Most of the alterations made to the original script work in favour of the film. In this film, Richa’s passion for dance and the kind of connection she has with it has been described in detail. Sanya is a terrific dancer and it is a treat to watch her perform, especially in the sequence which arrives towards the end of the film.
In the original film, Nimisha Sajayan’s character was called Richa and Suraj Venjaramoodu was named Richa. Sanya and Nishant have the same names in the film. In the original film, however, Diwakar was a school teacher. In this film, Diwakar is a gynaecologist. The difference in the social strata of the characters also changes a lot of things in the narrative. A few alterations do not sit well. The climax of the original film and the events preceding them were much more powerful and managed to make a stronger statement.
Director Arati Kadav gives ‘Mrs’ a distinctive visual feel which is very different from the kind one witnessed in the original. Along with co-writers Anu Singh Choudhary and Harman Baweja, she puts together a screenplay that keeps you consistently engaged, even if you have seen the original. The dialogues (Anu Singh Choudhary) are very good. . Pratham Mehta’s camerawork is one of the highlights of the film. The songs (Sagar Desai and Faizan Hussain) are pleasant and play a part in taking the narrative forward. The background score, by Sagar Desai, is very good.
Sanya Malhotra’s confident performance is one of the strengths of the film. As an audience, one gets a proper idea of who Richa is and who she is compelled to become owing to Sanya’s terrific performance. Nishant Dahiya delivers an assured performance, the kind which makes you wonder why one does not see him very often on-screen. Kanwaljit Singh, as always, delivers a memorable performance. Aparna Ghoshal is not seen in the latter reels of the film but manages to leave a mark. Several actors who appear briefly, including Varun Badola, Gulsita and Loveleen Mishra, leave a mark as they get well-written scenes to perform.
While it might not have the edginess of the original, ‘Mrs’ is a very well-adapted version of ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ that also manages to stand firmly on its feet as a standalone entity. Most of the creative choices made by the team land well and what we get is a film that deserves to be seen, felt and understood.