Malayalam film The Great Indian Kitchen, which released in 2021, has been selected to be screened at the UK Asian Film Festival in 2021. The film directed by Jeo Baby was earlier selected for the Shanghai International Film Festival. The film which first released on OTT platform Neestream and later on Amazon Prime Video, has Nimisha Sajayan and Suraj Venjaramoodu playing the lead characters.

Nimisha is married to a large household and the film traces her journey, from toiling in the kitchen of her husband’s house, confined within the patriarchal conventions of society, to eventually liberating herself and finding her voice.

The Great Indian Kitchen was shot by Salu K Thomas and produced by Dijo Augustine, Jomon Jacob, Vishnu Rajan, and Sajin S Raj. The film released to critical acclaim with several people praising the film. It was later picked up by Amazon Prime Video with the company acquiring streaming rights.

The Great Indian Kitchen is Jeo Baby’s fourth film and in an earlier interview to TNM, the director had spoken about what led him to make a movie about the work women in most houses did and how men were oblivious to it.

“Before marriage, I used to enjoy cooking. And that’s because it was something I did only when it suited me, not something I had to do every day. It was only after marriage when my wife and I began toiling in the kitchen day in and day out that I thought of the women who do this all their lives. It’s then that I thought of making a film,” Jeo had said.

He also added that he was inspired to make a film when he realised how most of his male friends were fully oblivious of the amount of work women did in the kitchen. Jeo Baby is also known for his films Kilometers and Kilometers, 2 Penkuttikal and Kunju Deivam.