Kitchen, Confinement, and Catharsis

A Feminist Reading of Mrs. and The Great Indian Kitchen

Bibliographic Data

ID19220646
AuthorsAnshu Yadav (0000-0002-8096-0161, Amity University), Shubham Pathak (0000-0002-2750-8483, Indian Institute of Technology BHU, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages1-20
Publication date2026-05-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWomen s Studies in Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0749-1409 • E-ISSN: 2152-999X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07491409.2026.2659632
OpenAlexW7161307431
LanguageEN
References cited19

This article offers a comparative analysis of The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) and its Hindi adaptation, Mrs. (2024), two films that examine the emotional and physical toll of domestic labor and patriarchal control within Indian households. Through an exploration of everyday spaces, the kitchen, the dining table, and the bedroom, the article traces how both protagonists navigate marital expectations, silent surveillance, and cultural rituals that normalize female subordination. By situating these films within both Global North and South feminist discourses, this study highlights how cinematic storytelling critiques and also reproduces cultural norms, revealing the shifting politics of gendered labor across regional and national contexts. Thus, the article examines how feminist resistance can be portrayed through different cinematic vocabularies, offering new ways to think about gender, labor, and autonomy in contemporary Indian cinema

Feminism · Reading (process) · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Literature: history, themes, analysis · South Asian Cinema and Culture

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