Leaking pipeline in 'Mrs' a metaphor for patriarchy: Arati Kadav on remaking 'The Great Indian Kitchen'

Arati Kadav not only wanted 'Mrs' to retain the strong feminist statement of 'The Great Indian Kitchen', but also include her lived experiences as a woman.

New Delhi: Taking a film like The Great Indian Kitchen and remaking it for a new audience was a responsibility for Arati Kadav, who wanted Mrs to retain the strong feminist statement of the original but also include her lived experiences as a woman.

Mrs stars Sanya Malhotra as Richa, an aspiring dancer who gets into an arranged marriage and slowly begins to unravel as she gets tied up with an unending cycle of kitchen duties. The film has been praised for being a good adaptation.

Kadav, who has in the past made sci-fi drama Cargo, admits that it was a tough but cathartic experience to remake Jeo Baby's 2021 Malayalam film in Hindi.

The Great Indian Kitchen has a very strong feminist statement. It's the story of our mothers and aunts' lives. It's a story that will define our daughters' lives in a way. So, it had to be told responsibly... People love it for its treatment. As a director, you obviously cannot copy the treatment, you have to bring your own things but there's a risk. So, I treated the original like a book," Kadav told PTI in an interview.

The filmmaker said her character in Mrs, currently streaming on ZEE5, faces criticism for tasting the food while cooking and it came from a personal memory. There were many other such stories of many women that have organically made their way to the film, which retains the leaking kitchen pipeline scene from the original.

"This film is not about text but subtexts... The leaking kitchen pipeline in the film is a metaphor for patriarchy. That it is an old problem, the whole pipeline needs to be changed. I added many silences in the film because it's a very lonely journey for many women... They are experts in not speaking up their mind. I wanted to show and not tell about the emotions she goes through," Kadav said.

The director said The Great Indian Kitchen, starring Nimisha Sajayan as an unnamed wife, viewed the story from a distance, an aspect that she decided to change in her version, which also gives the character a name.

"I thought I'll play with the point of view, about what she is feeling... So, I added a lot of personal (observation) to the scenes... I had seen something similar at my house. Even if my parents fought at night, my mother used to cry and all but she would go and cook in the morning. Women always go back to cooking which I wanted to put in this film.

"Making Mrs, in a way, was very autobiographical for me... Gender politics is complicated. You sometimes lose some battles on purpose because you want to win at a better battle. You know where you have lost those battles. I made this film at the right time because I'm a woman in my 40s. I have experienced all this," she added.

Kadav praised Malhotra for embodying the character in Mrs with great empathy, which has translated well on screen.

"There's no false note in her performance. She lived every moment of that character. By the time we reached the end of the film, I could see the emotional toll it was taking on her. It almost made me feel criminal that I was making her go through these emotions. She took this upon herself to tell this story correctly. We made it with responsibility and love," she said.

Kadav started her journey as an assistant director in the movies and made short films 55 km/sec, The Astronaut and his Parrot before her debut with Cargo, a movie that was praised for mixing mythology with science fiction.

"Till you make a feature film, people think it is just a hobby for you. You don't earn as you are starting out," she said.

Kadav has already written a story with Sumit Purohit of Scam 1992 fame and hopes to make it into a movie. Vikramaditya Motwane's producer mother Deepa Motwane is backing another sci-fi movie for Kadav.

"The environment in which feature films are made that suits me. Because I take my own time to design my shot. I don't understand the rush of the series. I can't work that fast, so I enjoy planning and doing things," she said.