Beyond Domestic Boundaries: A look through Evolving and Emotional Kitchen Spaces in Malayalam Cinema

Regarded traditionally as domain of domesticity, kitchens in Malayalam films extended its roots beyond functional settings by becoming dynamic spaces that paves ways for character growth, familial dynamics and shifting of societal values. The early portrayals in cinema often strengthened gender roles, representing kitchen as a space for ‘women’s’ duties and a representation of her ‘identity’ within the family structure. The gradual evolvement of Malayalam cinema made kitchens emerge as surroundings where characters especially women to be opinionated and strong by navigating themselves from personal struggles and confront social expectations. The evolution portrayed men in kitchen and household with more accuracy and precision by bringing in characters who cooks and cleans and make a living out of cooking. Filmmakers from Malayalam employ kitchen as a space or a domestic sphere to convey nuanced emotional depth, challenge traditional gender norms and comment on the intersections of family and identity as they serve as critical sites for emotional, social and cultural narratives. They act as spaces that perceives a lot of emotions. This paper is a look through of few stories that convey diverse emotions such as happiness, curiosity, frustration and survival while exploring the evolution of the kitchen as a non-gendered space in Malayalam cinema. It analyses how kitchen spaces are represented across films, irrespective of gender by positioning the kitchen as a dynamic and transformative social centre.