The Server and the Served: Food, Feeding, and Consumption in Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Kodiyettam

A man sits on the floor wolfing down his food while a woman, seated across, serves him from time to time. Anyone familiar with Adoor Gopalakrishnan's oeuvre would immediately recognize this visual trope since it surfaces in almost all his major films, including his recent Naalu Pennungal/Four Women (2007). Food and its consumption, in fact, are integral to his exploration of gender relations in his native Kerala. Along with the physical act of eating, he seeks to capture the psychological, social, and cultural dynamics of a ritual involving two individuals.