‘Mrs’ Movie Review: Sanya Malhotra Delivers a Powerful Act in Arati Kadav’s Faithful Remake of ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ (LatestLY Exclusive)

Mrs Movie Review: When the Malayalam film The Great Indian Kitchen was about to release, no theatrical avenue or OTT platform was willing to take it up. It was initially released on a little-known platform called Neestream. After garnering critical acclaim and admiration online, Prime Video eventually picked it up for streaming. So, I’m glad that its Tamil and now Hindi remakes have found decent avenues for release, with the Hindi remake, Mrs, securing a streaming slot on Zee5. While I’m not usually a fan of remakes, Mrs is quite a decent adaptation of The Great Indian Kitchen, which in itself is a win, considering how poorly Bollywood has adapted films in the past. The Great Indian Kitchen Movie Review: Nimisha Sajayan, Suraj Venjaramoodu’s Social Drama, Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Is Brilliant!

Directed by Arati Kadav (Cargo), Mrs is perhaps her least surreal project to date, which works apropos for the kind of messaging it aims to deliver with its women empowerment themes. I don’t recall the protagonist of The Great Indian Kitchen having a name - likely a deliberate choice by director Jeo Baby to represent every housewife trapped in the ‘great Indian kitchen’. In Mrs, however, the protagonist has a name: Richa (Sanya Malhotra). She’s a terrific dancer with her own dance troupe.

That changes when her family arranges her marriage to Diwakar (Nishant Dahiya, who seems to be attracting roles that require him to play good-looking jerks). Diwakar is a gynaecologist, which is ironic given his apathy towards the women in his household—a trait he shares with his father, Ashwin (Kanwaljit Singh).

Watch the Trailer of 'Mrs':

Richa is immediately thrust into managing the household, though the pressures of the kitchen don’t overwhelm her at first, as her mother-in-law (Aparna Ghoshal) still shoulders most of the responsibilities, having mastered the art of catering to the whims of the men in the house. However, when the mother-in-law leaves to visit her pregnant daughter, the burden of running the kitchen falls entirely on Richa, turning her life into a living hell.

'Mrs' Movie Review -  A Very Faithful Adaptation

Those familiar with The Great Indian Kitchen will find much of Mrs’s plotline recognisable. It features nearly identical sequences—a broken kitchen pipe that the men never bother to fix, serving as a metaphor for Richa’s growing frustration. Richa’s sex life becomes a tool for family planning, with no regard for her desires or comfort. Scene after scene shows her thanklessly serving her husband and father-in-law, who offer no praise but are quick to criticise when the food doesn’t meet their expectations. Not to mention the relatives who seize opportunities to rag her while her husband watches sheepishly.

Like the original, Mrs removes the saas - often blamed in movies and serials for mistreating the bahu - from the equation to highlight how years of servitude to men have turned her into a silent victim, while also placing the onus on the men of the household to show where the cycle of oppression begins.

Even the finale is nearly identical, with a similar epilogue showing how Richa and Diwakar’s lives unfold after her explosive outburst.

There are changes to the setting to make it more relatable to North Indian audiences. For instance, the controversial Sabarimala sequence is replaced with Karva Chauth. Another interesting tweak involves menstruation - in the original, the film defiantly calls out the isolation of women during their periods, treating them as untouchables in their own homes.

This practice has largely faded in modern society in Kerala, though other patriarchal ills persist. In the Hindi remake, Richa’s five-day period becomes a momentary respite from her daily duties. While it still critiques men’s aversion to the ‘impurity’ of menstruation and highlights how it’s more of a problem for the privileged, the scene also turns what is typically a painful experience into a blessing in disguise for Richa, given the life she leads before and after. Mrs: Sanya Malhotra Wins Best Actress Award at the New York Indian Film Festival for Her Film.

'Mrs' Movie Review - Why This Remake Feels Relevant

Despite the familiarity of the plot, I’d still give Mrs a pass. For one, it adeptly adapts the original to its new setting. Secondly, the story deserves a wider reach. The glorification of women's role in the kitchen has its fans in the online world and even in movies and shows, and the movie does a good job of dismantling that. Through Richa's jerk of a husband, we get to hear classics like 'kitchen has the solution to all', and how 'the smell of kitchen is the best of all smells' (never mind, he retracts on that when his big ego gets pricked).

If the male characters in the original disgusted you, they’ll likely evoke the same reaction here - no small feat, considering their actions don’t involve physical violence. The emotional and mental violence is evident and brutal enough. The film also doesn’t shy away from taking digs at traditionalists who try to justify problematic customs with ‘science’ to avoid scrutiny.

That said, I was disappointed that a talented filmmaker like Arati Kadav, known for her unique voice, had to handle a remake that doesn’t allow much room for deviation and often feels like a copy-paste job. Still, there are some tweaks I appreciate, like the use of music beats in Richa’s intro scene, where she’s dancing with her troupe, contrasted with a later scene where she’s completely absorbed in kitchen work, showcasing how her life has changed.

There’s a scene where Richa dances in her kitchen, and for a brief moment, you see the woman she used to be - a woman full of infectious vigour, now buried under layers of repression and responsibilities. It’s moments like these that make Mrs worth watching. Also, Remo D’Souza, if you’re reading this, I need a dance-based movie with Sanya Malhotra in the lead!

Malhotra, an underrated actress, is captivating here, portraying the various stages of her character’s mounting frustration like a pressure cooker building steam. Kanwaljit Singh also shines as papaji, whose soft-spoken demeanour doesn’t mask the misogynist within.

'Mrs' Movie Review - Final Thoughts

Even if Mrs feels like a retread of the original Malayalam film, it serves as a stark reminder that the ‘great Indian kitchen’ remains a thankless battleground for countless women. Its story is one that needs to be told, and retold, until the message truly hits home. Sanya Malhotra’s nuanced performance and Arati Kadav’s subtle directorial touches elevate the film, though it remains to be seen whether it can replicate the profound impact that The Great Indian Kitchen achieved in Kerala. Mrs is now streaming on Zee5.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 06, 2025 12:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).