Biriyaani

Biriyaani is a 2020 Indian Malayalam-language drama film written and directed by Sajin Baabu. It features Kani Kusruti and Shailaja Jala in the lead roles. The film won NETPAC award for best film in 20th Asiatica Film Festival in Rome, Jury prize for Best Film at Bangalore International Film Festival, best film at the Caleidoscope Indian Film festival, Boston etc. Actress Kani Kusruti won the best actress at the BRICS competition section of the 42nd Moscow Film Festival, best actress at the Caleidoscope Indian Film festival, second-best actress award at the Imagine Film Festival in Madrid, Spain, and the 2019 Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress at Kerala State Film Awards for her performance in this film.
Khadeeja endures a loveless marriage, where she is treated as nothing more than an object for her husband's pleasure. When she seeks her own pleasure, he rebukes her, blaming it on her incomplete circumcision, reinforcing the belief that women should not experience sex. She has strained relationships with her in-laws, while her mother, plagued by anxiety, struggles with her mental health. Though Khadeeja is only educated up to high school, her brother is an engineer who recently returned from the Middle East. His sudden departure triggers another breakdown in their mother, which Khadeeja soothes by promising a feast to commemorate their father's death anniversary.
News reports warn of radical Wahhabi influence spreading through Malayalees returning from Saudi Arabia, fueling extremist activities. Soon, Khadeeja and her mother are investigated due to her brother's alleged ties to terrorism. Under pressure from the community, her husband divorces her via text, forbids her from contacting their son, and abandons her. Seeking answers, she visits Abubakar, her brother's handler, who refuses to help, warning them to stay away. The mosque soon excommunicates them. Later, Abubakar brings money from her brother, which she rejects, demanding his return. In a letter, her brother urges her to take their mother to a shrine for healing.
At the shrine, they meet Bijil, a priest who tells them faith alone won't heal her mother—most visitors come for free meals. Khadeeja observes a woman selling her body and the priest's hypocrisy in secret self-indulgence. When Bijil confronts her, she mocks religious double standards. Days later, he shows her news of her brother's death in Kashmir and Abubakar's arrest. She hides this from her mother. Bijil, having no family left, offers her his home and financial support. They relocate, but Khadeeja resists using his money. When a journalist exposes her family's past, her mother dies in shock. Grieving and destitute, she turns to prostitution, shedding her conservative identity. Bijil disapproves but continues helping her.
Determined to honour her mother's wish for a memorial feast, she hosts an iftar, inviting even her ex-husband. Before the event, police detain her under false pretences, causing a miscarriage. At the iftar, guests unknowingly consume biryani laced with her stillborn fetus. Bijil, horrified, leaves her, insisting two wrongs don't make a right. Alone, she feeds a stray dog with her last money before drowning herself.
In her final moments, she imagines being in control of her body, experiencing pleasure with her ex-husband as she had always wished.
The film was shot at places close to Varkala, Thiruvananthapuram and also at some places in Tamil Nadu.
Kani Kusruti remembers having doubts about certain scenes in the film that feature nudity. "When Sajin approached me for the role, I felt that it was a bit too much. I knew the 'male gaze' would be there. It's unavoidable with male directors, sometimes even with female directors. I considered it for some time, then Sajin came back to me, saying that he had written that role with me in mind. None of my previous roles had a proper beginning, middle and end like this one did, so I decided to look at it as an opportunity," she says.
The Central Board of Film Certification approved of the film with few cuts of close shots of the circumcision scene and that of the goat slaughter. Also the nudity was asked to be blurred. The film was rated ‘adults only’ by the Censor Board. Biriyaani was released in theatres across Kerala after few weeks of its screening in International Film Festival of Kerala. Around 12 theatres backed out from screening it.
Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote "The film is about the travails of being an oppressed caste/class Muslim woman, and also about generally being Muslim in Kerala."