When Khadeeja, a woman from a conservative Muslim family, learns that her brother has been accused of being an ISIS terrorist, she experiences gradual rejection from her rural Kerala community. Her husband divorces her and prevents her from seeing her son. Stripped of assets, she and her mentally ill mother take refuge in a mosque in Tamil Nadu, where the sensitive muezzin becomes her only confidante. Liberated from societal labels, Khadeeja, curious to explore her sexuality, chooses sex work. When even that does not go her way, she opts to hold a traditional feast serving the local delicacy, biriyaani, to make amends with the community that ostracized her.

Narratively crisp, as though keeping up with the flurry of assaults experienced by the protagonist, BIRIYAANI is a somber depiction of the intersectionality among gender, class and caste oppression in a pocket of the Malabar Coast. Every scene of Sajin Baabu’s script is a call to character, deeply humanist and moved by people’s ordinary natures. Centering the proceedings is a shatteringly quiet and valiant performance by Kani Kusruti, whose countenance burnishes with measured stoicism and determination to own her limits and desire. She knows what transgression does, she shoots with it, and soars. 

DIRECTOR

Sajin Babu is a writer/director from Kerala, India. His debut feature film titled ASTHAMAYAM VARE (UNTO THE DUSK) made in 2014 was premiered at the Mumbai International film festival and won him numerous accolades including the Silver Pheasant at the 19th International Film Festival of Kerala 2014 and Best Feature Film at the Bangalore International Film Festival 2014. His second feature AYAAL SASSI (MAN WITH A COFFIN) was released across Kerala in 2017. His latest movie BIRIYAANI has screened at Moscow IFF, Asiatica FF, and Bangalore IFF.