Idiyappam, also known as Nool Puttu or Nool Appam, is a famous breakfast dish of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which looks like a noodle made up of rice flour, salt and water. It is made of rice flour pressed onto a disc with small holes resulting in delicious string hoppers. This is steamed with grated coconut and served with coconut milk or spicy curries. Idiyappam is not just food; it is a weapon. If I say so, will you believe it?

The movie Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey was released in October 2022. By now, we might have come across numerous articles and reviews about how Basil Joseph foreshadowed the fight in the movie poster, or about the letter H on the title. Before the movie was released, he was asked about the significance of the image of the foot on the movie title font during an interview. Basil Joseph replied that it represents a sanitiser, not a foot (Sania, Personal Communications, October 17, 2022). Why shouldn’t we trust him? He continued with the importance of covid. On the spot, Basil scripted a story based on how Jaya and Rajesh forgot their sanitiser and how that resulted in further issues as a married couple. Later, completely forgetting about the poster and interview, we watched the movie and embraced the suspense.

Apart from the poster, Basil Joseph picked a traditional dish of Kerala to represent the fight in the movie, idiyappam. Idi in Malayalam means “fight”. Idiyappam is a breakfast dish in Kerala. But not all households are fond of it because it is hard to make. When Jaya visits her house, we see her parents reaching out to the idiyappam maker from a dusty corner of the kitchen to make their son-in-law’s favourite dish.

However, on their wedding day, the camera gaze at idiyappam and kadala curry, and the song goes like “Enthanithu Engottithu”, which can be translated to,” what is this and where to” as clueless as it is. The song ends with idiyappam and chilly chicken – an absurd combination. Idiyappam has a different purpose in the movie. It is not just a simple South Indian food that comes and goes in various camera shots. Moreover, why idiyappam? Why not anything else like dosa, puttu or idli?

Preparing idiyappam requires immense strength. The make should press the rice flour to come out of the small holes of the disc in the shape of noodles. We could see Rajesh’s mom making hot delicious idiyappam early in the morning. This scene is unforgettable just by the expression of the co-actress, Kudassanad Kanakam. At some point, the scene made me believe that his mom might be stronger than Jaya. 

Rajesh’s mother forgets and forgives her beloved son’s wrongful actions. She suppresses her feelings and trouble at the house. She teaches her daughter Raji played by Sheethal Zackria, a divorcee, to do the same. Even when Raji was called out for being fat and useless as a married woman by her brother Jayan, she could only react to an extent. Raji never revealed that she gained weight because of a medical condition. This is a direct slap to us as the audience because we usually never release the difficult journey of women in domestic space. For example, we never really realise whether our sister, wife, daughter-in-law, or mother is in Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) or menstrual cycle while working in the kitchen. Most families try to be modern by coming out of the traditional cultural practice of not letting women near the kitchen or temple while on their menstrual cycle. But they often fail to understand that now women must work extra hours in the household when this one week of untouchability comes to an end. Nevertheless, the character of Raji is a symbol of domestic violence which is not physical but mental. Most of the time, Raji is body shamed by her family member, and she is forced to keep quiet about it to maintain peace at her house.

Food is an element that is much closer to women in a household since she is working in the kitchen from dusk to dawn. Most of the time, we experience and express love through the food they cook. Thereby, cooking becomes a language of a household woman. The movie focuses on this element, which is much closer to women, and every audience can relate. The director Vipin Das carefully chooses idiyappam to represent the “idi”(fight), thereby foreshadowing what’s coming next. So, we could say that idiyappam acts as a weapon in the movie that helps Jaya to break free from her male chauvinist husband, Rajesh.

References:

Shrijith, Sajin. 2022. CinemaExpress. https://www.cinemaexpress.com/malayalam/review/2022/oct/30/jaya-jaya-jaya-jaya-hey-review-darshana-rajendran-basil-joseph-36090.html

Vilakudy, Rajaneesh. 2023. Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey: Why director Vipin Das take a light approach to a dark subject?. The Federal. https://thefederal.com/entertainment/jaya-jaya-jaya-jaya-hey-why-director-vipin-das-takes-a-light-approach-to-a-dark-subject/

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Ann Rose Davis is a doctoral candidate at the Department of English and Cultural Studies in CHRIST (Deemed to be University).