Mrs. the Hindi remake of the Malayalam film The Great Indian Kitchen already had some buzz around it, especially due to the latter’s cult popularity.
The film directed by Arati Kadav, stars Sanya Malhotra as Richa, an aspiring dancer who gets married and sees how her life changes afterwards. The film looks at the very normalised and daily life of housewives, bound in the patriarchal setup where they toil away every single day without appreciation or help in the household chores.
The original film and Mrs. both draw in the audience by showing the monotony of Indian women who make these delicious foods based on the tastes and preferences of the family’s men. However, women are not allowed to make decisions about their own lives.
However, the Hindi remake is seeing a lot of outrage from men who believe that the film is promoting ‘toxic feminism’.
Why Is The Movie Triggering Indian Men?
The Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), a prominent men’s rights organization in Pune, has come forward to call out the movie and claim that it depicts men in a biased and inaccurate way.
According to the organisation, the film is just another form of feminist propaganda that demonises men and harms the traditional family structure. The biggest issue that the organisation has with the film is that men are being painted as the perpetrators of domestic violence and that men can also be victims, which the film is ignoring.
In a statement by SIFF, “According to statistics, women initiate two-thirds of all incidents of domestic violence, and 33.2% of male suicides are linked to family-related issues. Despite these statistics, ‘Mrs.’ neglects the experiences of men and promotes a one-sided narrative blaming men for all relationship problems. The Indian film industry has historically focused on portraying women as victims, while often ignoring the rising number of male suicides, which now outpace female suicides.”
The organisation seeking a ban on the film also said, “This glaring imbalance highlights the industry’s failure to address the issue of domestic violence perpetrated by women, leaving a critical issue unexplored.”
Read More: Could Indian Cuisine Be A Sign Of Patriarchy?
SIFF is also demanding that the filmmakers apologise for the “biased portrayal of men and remove the film from online platforms and theatres” along with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) stopping the release of any film that promotes gender bias or male genocide.
In a social media post, SIFF condemning the film wrote, “Women’s issues are eating 80% of the cake when it comes to policies for protection of millions of vulnerable people.”
Posting an image of the film’s poster, SIFF on its official X/Twitter page also wrote “Women’s are suffering, children are not facing any abuse in families. Women are suffering, men are not facing any crimes. Women are suffering abuse, senior citizens are not facing harassment in the family. Women are suffering abuse, the physically and mentally challenged are not facing any abuse.”
Along with also adding “What stress does a woman feel, while chopping vegetables and cooking food on a gas stove or doing dishes wearing gloves? Zero, Nothing. In fact, cooking is like a meditation. Is it highly stressful to press cloths or do laundry in a washing machine?”
Other users also seem to agree with this, with one writing, “Men have been suffering for 1000 years and now the persecution has gone to extreme level. It’s high time men must stand up to protect ourselves.”
Another commented, “Lot of men are being fed the idea that few marriages and women go rogue which is biggest myth. Marriage for indian men is like stepping on land mine. You cant take your foot of it untill your are sure death is better. Women have turned marriage into human rights violation scam.”
Others also posted comments like, “Too much exaggeration.. We haven’t seen such oppressed ladies in the Middle class Indian families in at least last 10 years” and “Boycott Zee5. “Mrs” is a misandrist shitshow, portraying men as villains or fools, attacking traditional family values by depicting them as oppressive.”
The comments from men, though, have also resulted in several supporters of the film rising. One user wrote, “You think this way as you are only seeing such messages through a negative lense, there are channels that voice out concerns for all. Every concern needs an advocate to help curb the issue.”
Another wrote, “Enough is enough! A mental breakdown from constant dissatisfaction is unbearable! Never read about it? Homemaking without having a goal—who finds joy in that? Try doing it for a week looking forward to doing it every day for years. If you like it, then switch works, bro!”
While a third wrote, “I knew this would happen when a woman centric movie on a woman’s struggle would release!! I knew all the fragile masculine men would pounce on it and call it propaganda!!!”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Mint, Hindustan Times, Pune Times Mirror
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This post is tagged under: mrs, mrs movie, mrs movie ott, mrs movie controversy, mrs movie feminism, mrs domestic violence, mrs toxic feminism, pune mens rights organisation
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