Arati Kadav’s “Mrs.” (2024), currently streaming on Zee5 Global, is the official remake of Jeo Baby’s heart-winning Malayalam drama, “The Great Indian Kitchen.” Just like a type of food being carried around the country can lead to hints of newness being added to it, “Mrs.” takes this universal tale of women’s unpaid labor and silent subjugation to the hegemonic patriarchy into the Indian heartland, thereby adding some unique elements to it while keeping the flavors of the original film intact and thriving. We at High On Films caught up with Sanya Malhotra, the film’s protagonist, in a candid conversation about her character of Richa, her relationship with food, movies, and the current state of mainstream Bollywood cinema. You can read this detailed conversation below:
Ahendrila Goswami: Congratulations on behalf of the High On Films team. Mrs. is a movie that I’ve looked forward to for a while now. And what a beautiful film! I think I was almost in tears by the end of it. We can’t wait for the world to watch it. So my first question here would be, how has playing Richa influenced your relationship with food? Or, has it in any way?
Sanya Malhotra: My relationship with food? (thoughtfully) I think it has definitely made me more aware of the fact that women around me have been making it look so easy. Like, my mother has made this very difficult task look so easy. And, which it [cooking] is not. And, uh, I think Mrs. really captures that very beautifully. Towards the end of the film, if you see, the tasks in the kitchen get heavier and heavier for Richa to handle. Even the peeling of peas. We don’t realize that unpeeling peas is such a tedious task.
And…all the heavier stuff is towards the end of the film like she’s making really difficult recipes towards the end. And when she’s happy, she’s also, you know, making all these beautiful looking things – whether it’s dal pakwan or that rice dough thing that she made to impress her in-laws – so well. I think with her emotions, uh, the kind of things that she’s making, of course, it has influenced me because whenever I’m happy, I also make [food]…I do a lot of prep with the kind of food that I’m making and the days when I’m not really feeling it. I just order food from outside. (laughs)
Ahendrila Goswami: Right, because I also cook at home and this is the first thing that came to me because I went to the kitchen late in the evening to prepare dinner, I was like, do I want to make this? What am I feeling about food right now?
Sanya Malhotra: The message that we want to give through the film is that cooking is a life skill and everyone should know how to nourish themselves.
Ahendrila Goswami: That’s certainly there and there are so many layers and nuances to it and the character. So we’ll just explore a few of them in the course of the questionnaire. For example, Richa is obviously, a prime number – she’s unbreakable, and she’s this character who’s on a quest to realize more about herself in the course of the film, right? Do you think you have any real-life inspiration or maybe any female character who you thought was your template from Hindi cinema or world cinema when you started preparing for this particular role?
Sanya Malhotra: I definitely had so many women I have seen go through similar sorts of challenges. Um, I have a friend who I’m very close to who has been through a similar sort of situation, and talking to her really helped me build Richa’s character. I think she shared so many details about her marriage, which she’s out of now. But you know, so many of those things like I’m…I don’t know, I feel very…thanks to her because she was able to share these vulnerable details about her life and those experiences that helped me create this character.
I have definitely seen Richa in my mother growing up. I have seen her let go of her own passions and her dreams of becoming a fashion designer to take care of us and keep us alive as kids. So yeah, we keep saying that Mrs. is not about one woman. It’s about all the women that we have seen around us and so up close and personal.
Ahendrila Goswami: So we see a lot of these movies, a lot of dramas which are centered around female characters or a lot of dramas, in general, happening in the Malayalam film industry. Can you or do you think that there may be one particular reason that may be the biggest blocker in Bollywood right now for not being able to make more of these nuanced, female-driven narratives?
Sanya Malhotra: I think we do…we are making nuanced, female-driven films.
Ahendrila Goswami: But in mainstream Bollywood? This has been the first that I’ve seen in a while now.
Sanya Malhotra: I’ve been a part of Paglaait, Kathal…I’ve seen films like Jigra, which I would call a mainstream Bollywood film in which a woman is leading. So, it’s not like Bollywood is not exploring this. It definitely is. But I agree with the fact that it can get better, and for it to get better, we also need more women behind the camera writing these stories. Because I think women get a very empathetic lens when they are making a woman’s story. So definitely things can get better in Bollywood, I would say.
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Ahendrila Goswami: I will quickly ask you the question that we are ask everyone – Can you name five films for me where you think cinema peaked for you? It can be any movie in Bollywood or from the international film scene.
Sanya Malhotra: Can I quickly open my letterboxd?
Ahendrila Goswami: Yes, yes, please.
Sanya Malhotra: Let’s see. Sick of Myself. Okay. Have you seen that film?
Ahendrila Goswami: No, I haven’t. (laughs awkwardly) I’m simultaneously putting this down on my watch list.
Sanya Malhotra: The Worst Person In The World. Yeah. I have Paglait on this list. (laughs) Then, it is Joyland. Uh, Lapaata Ladies. And Past Lives.
Ahendrila Goswami: I’ve seen, I think, five out of these six movies on the list. Paglaait is a favorite movie, but Joyland would be a clear winner.
Sanya Malhotra: And also Mrs…Mrs. is a nice film. (smiles)
Ahendrila Goswami: It is. I agree. (laughs) Now, moving on to our one last question. This is a little serious question so I saved it up for later. Do you think we need also more stories in mainstream Bollywood, or mainstream movies in general, where we are portraying marital rape? Mrs. in some ways portrays marital rape but it is not screaming about it. Maybe we need movies to scream about it for the media to start talking about it more.
Sanya Malhotra: Oh yeah, this is actually a very heavy question. And a really nice one, I have not thought about it. But I…if I have to talk about Mrs., I hope this becomes the start of that conversation. And…is Mrs. not a mainstream movie?
Ahendrila Goswami: It is. It certainly is. I just hope people out there also treat it as a mainstream movie because I think there is a division in how the audience perceives movies right now. Some of them go into theatres thinking that, okay, if it’s a testosterone-rich, violence-based action movie it is going to be a mainstream movie. So I think our problem here is that of our own perception of movies.
Sanya Malhotra: I think, to be honest, as an industry, we are also trying to figure out what the audience likes. We are also trying to figure that out. I don’t know what is working and what is not. But I honestly feel that I hope Mrs. sparks that conversation and not just about this, but about all the other things that we are trying to subtly see through the film. But I also really, really hope that this becomes a film that we talk about and keep talking about for a long time so that we have more movies like this coming. And I hope that one day, these films and these characters are not relatable or relevant to women.
