When filmmaker Arati Kadav was approached to remake the critically acclaimed Malayalam film The Great Indian Kitchen in Hindi as Mrs, she wasn’t entirely convinced. “I told my producer also. Why do we have to remake a cult classic? There is no way to win this. We will only get a lot of flak for it, “ revealed Kadav, who made Mrs, starring Sanya Malhotra. 

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A Hindi remake of a Malayalam film, Mrs, deftly talks about misogyny prevalent in Indian households. The film, released in February, has opened up conversations about gender roles and has been loved by fans and critics alike. In a candid conversation with WION, filmmaker Arati Kadav opened up about making the film and how, despite initial apprehension of helming the film, she realized the importance of a remake.

“See, for us, we watched Great Indian Kitchen. But there is a lot of North Indian audience for which that film is not that accessible. So it was very important to make this film for them because it is their story also. It happens in every household of India.So I thought it was important to recontextualize it in the North Indian setting.”

Kadav revealed that Mrs producer Harman Baweja met around 9 directors for the remake of Great Indian Kitchen before she came on board. 

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Kadav felt she got the opportunity to direct because she had shown apprehension. “I think the only reason I got the job was because I was the one who was saying that the original is perfect. Any other director was pointing flaws,” Kadav said jokingly and added, “Getting a film like Great Indian Kitchen is a magic in itself when everything is right.”

Mrs

Written and directed by Jeo Baby, the Malayalam film The Great Indian Kitchen was released in 2021. The film talked of a middle-class family in Kerala, highlighting the deep-seated misogyny in the household where the woman toiled through the day and the men ate, gave orders and forbade the women to work outside of the home professionally. Kadav said it was important to ‘recontextualize the original story to the North Indian setting.’ 

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Kadav mentioned that the Mrs was treatment-based and hence was tough to get it right.

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Directing someone else's vision

“A director usually cannot copy a treatment. The director has to come up with his treatment. That is a tough thing to crack because you want the film to be realistic also,” pointed the filmmaker. Kadav pointed out that writers Anu Singh Choudhury and Baweja agreed with her that the film will be set in the middle class to make it relatable. 

Kadav also mentioned that directing a film that was not written by her was a challenge. “The script is not by you. It's by some other person. It's their vision. For me, I was not able to bring myself to it. So I had to do a part of the script where I could make the script my own. There were things that I brought in like the portion about Shikanji. I brought out the dance part a lot more in the script. Because I have never directed anything that I have not written. So this was the first time I was directing that someone else had written and was their vision. But I had to give it a pass, and I had to make it slightly my own to make it work.” 

Mrs

Kadav said she had to re-look the entire film from her perspective. “I think every director does. Whether they are a writer or not. You just have to re-orient the scene from your point of view. Because you have a chain of thoughts of how you are seeing the film. And you have to make it consistent.

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Favourite moment of Mrs

When asked if she like a particular moment in the film the most, Kadav said the portion where Richa and her husband visit her friend’s house and they are having a chat over dinner.  

“The part where she laughs when she is at her friend’s house. When she is laughing away at her problems,” points out Kadav and adds, “She is slightly drunk and laughing away. I thought that was a unique thing. And that laughing away came while directing only. Earlier, it was a very serious scene. And I thought, let her be so fed up with it and just laugh. It was a very fun scene. It was a very tough scene for Sanya.

“Because it has a very good graph for her as an actor- where she is finally a little bit free post marriage for the first time. Where she is eating something she likes. Because she keeps saying that she likes Casata ice cream. But by the time it comes to her to eat it, she is in a very sad state and simply gulps it down. “ 

Mrs

Audience reception

Mrs screened at various International film festivals before it was released on ZEE5 in India. Kadav recalled the positive reaction the film had received at international festival circuits as well. The film’s narrative has opened up conversations about gender role, and Kadav feels the purpose of the film has been served well. 

“I have genuinely connected with the people. Especially the people for whom the film was made, because that had become my mission.” 

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The subtle messaging

Mrs is also credited for driving home the message in the most subtle way possible. At no point does the film give out jargons on gender equaluity. “ The idea of it is always was to keep it subtle. Films are such that. Sometimes you have to spell out a lot of things. But sometimes it should be left for interpretation, said Kadav. 

In Mrs there is nothing that is given to us yet it is all there. You create a perspective. Kadav revealed that she omitted a monologue in the end because then that would mean to spell out what was being told throughout the film. 

“Towards the end of the film, there was a big monologue that was written for Sanya character. I didn't even shoot. I thought if she was giving a monologue, what is the point of making a film? I was clear about this. Let people gather it from the scene itself, let them understand.” 

“When you show and you don't tell. It stays longer in people's minds. That was my idea.” 

Nobody is a villain in Mrs

Kadav stated that while the film talked about the plight of women at home, the team was careful not to show the men as villains. “Men are simply ignorant,” pointed the director and praised actors Varun Badola, Nishant Dahiya and Kuwaljeet Singh – who play the male characters in the film. 

Kadav, who has made the sci-fi film Cargo in the past, said Mrs was her first character-driven film and she had a ball while making it. “We did lot of readings. We did a lot of rehearsals, which helped,” said Kadav who shot the film like a stage play- shooting the whole scene in a go without takes. 

Kadav said Sanya Malhotra surrendered to her vision completely. " Sanya was so good. She surrendered to so many takes. I wanted improvement in performance and she was always ready to improvise and do better with each take.” 

The film involved a lot of scenes in the kitchen with Sanya’s character making delectable items to impress her father-in-law and husband. Kadav revealed that the food was made on set and about 60-70 dishes were made during the filming of Mrs. 

“I spoke to food bloggers. I spoke to a lot of women. I thought we should use. Traditional grandmother recipes from Uttar Pradesh. We used those recipes. We had a food stylist who was making the food look slightly good. We all gained at least 10 kilos, we would eat all that was made while shooting.” 

'Sanya is a great cook' 

Kadav also revealed that Sanya Malhotra is a good cook. “We did not have any hand double, she was actually making the dishes. Even the messy parts had Sanya using her hands. From cleaning the bones and throwing them in the bin, to cleaning the blocked drain, Sanya did it herself. So kudos to her for that.”

Arati Kadav said she was out of her comfort zone while making Mrs. The director has worked mostly on the sci-fi genre, and the family drama made her work hard on all the characters. 

“ It was a challenging job. I just wanted to do it. The story was speaking to me. I tried to bring in a lot of my sci-fi sensibilities while making Mrs and a as a director, I grew a lot.” 

Watch: Mrs actor Sanya Malhotra: It's Time to Recognise Women's Aspirations | E-Club