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 Banglore 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.
Plot
The film starts with Khadeeja having emotionless sex with her husband and then he gets to his daily chores the moment he is satisfied, an implication of the tag line of the film where women are treated as a piece of flesh without giving any considerations to their emotions. Later she starts masturbating which she enjoys, to which her husband is annoyed and laments that her clitoris was not properly circumcised, again implying that women are forbidden from enjoying sex as per tenets of Islam.
Khadeeja has poor relations with her in-laws and her mother has lost sanity because of frequent anxiety attacks in her past when her husband would leave her alone when he had to go on long fishing trips. Khadeeja is educated only till high school, however her brother is well educated and had recently visited from Gulf after a short stint as an engineer. Khadeeja's mother suffers an anxiety attack when her son leaves her alone without providing any details. Khadeeja calms her down by telling her that they would host a feast for the village to commemorate her father's death anniversary.
We see TV debates that speak of more radical Wahabi culture coming from Malayalees returning from Saudi taking over the mild Sufi and Salafi culture of India, and this becomes a concern for most panellists as it is encouraging terrorist activities. Later we see Khadeeja and her mother facing an enquiry from the NIA for her brother's involvement with ISIS. Her husband instantly gives her divorce (by sending a text message with talaq written 3 times) so that his family does not bear the brunt of his community and also on the behest of a priest, who informs him she is bad luck. He forbids her to even talk to her son on phone. Khadeeja visits Abubakar, handler of her brother, who politely tells them not to visit him again so that he stays out of the radar of investigative agencies and in the meantime they also get a letter from the mosque informing them that they have been banished from their community. Both are left to fend for themselves. Sometime later Abubakar comes with a letter and money sent by her brother. Khadeeja returns the money and tells him that they only want her brother back. In the letter, her brother asks Khadeeja to take their mother to a shrine whose spiritual powers would heal his mother. When they arrive at the shrine, they meet the kind-hearted priest Bijil who tells Khadeeja that she should take her mother to the doctor and most of the people come here for the food given out by charitable devotees of the shrine. Like most people there Khadeeja makes the courtyard their home.