Beyond the Ideal Woman: Cinematic Interventions into Gender Norms in The Great Indian Kitchen and Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey

This research critically examines the cinematic deconstruction of gender norms in two contemporary films The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) and Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey (2022). The study explores how popular cinema can challenge entrenched ideals of masculinity and femininity. Drawing on Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis framework this study employs purposive sampling to analyze films that explicitly engage with gendered expectations. It interrogates how domestic labour, familial hierarchies, and societal stereotypes are portrayed and resisted on screen. The analysis reveals that both films show the subversion of the stereotypical cinematic representations by foregrounding the female protagonists’ resistance to patriarchal control and thus offer alternative narratives of empowerment. The Great Indian Kitchen critiques the invisibilization of women’s domestic labour through its realist depiction of everyday routines, while Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey does the same through the main vehicle of satire to expose the normalization of gendered violence and the policing of female autonomy. The paper argues that these films mark a significant shift in Indian popular cinema by moving beyond stereotypical portrayals or tokenism empowerment without any narrative stake. By situating these films within broader socio-cultural and cinematic traditions this study highlights their role in reshaping the discourse on gender in India. This research throws light on how popular cinema has long been complicit in reinforcing patriarchal norms is now increasingly becoming a site of resistance and reimagination of gendered identities.