Tasting Patriarchy: Toxic Masculinity and Female Resistance in the Great Indian Kitchen

Abstract

In India, men and women are living within a failed system. A system that consistently fails only for one gender: women. Male domination is still everywhere, no matter how much women empowerment is spoken about. The liberation of women cannot be achieved by living in this toxic masculine system. Here, women are being controlled, sacrificed to maintain male power, and thus slowly making them disempowered. Wherever she goes, patriarchal norms follow and bind her until death. This prevents a female from expressing who she is and blocks her from who she wants to be. Every Indian household is a training ground for women to study how to sacrifice so that men can rule. Such a tale is unfolding in the Malayalam movie The Great Indian Kitchen, directed by Jeo Baby. The leading role by Nimisha Sajayan is playing the character of a newly married woman who battles the oppressive shackles of a patriarchal household every day. The evolution of this character captures the transition of a woman from a silent sufferer to a resister. This movie is a powerful example of how the whole system of patriarchy is deeply embedded in culture, religion, and normalized within the structure of the family. So, this movie clearly articulates why marriage is daunting for every girl. This paper analyses the movie The Great Indian Kitchen under the paradigm of radical feminism.