Mira Nair
I decided to watch three movies by the Indian filmmaker Mira Nair: New York, I love You ( 2009) in which Mira Nair directed the second segment of the movies “ Kosher Vegetarian” about a jewish lady and hindu gentleman; Mississippi Masala(1991), based on a screen play by Soni Tarapomevala was one of her first directed movies and it is a romantic drama about racial relationships and conflicts through a romance between an African American and an Indian American born in Africa; and Monsoon Wedding(2001) written by Sabrina Dhawan that tells a number of romantic stories in a traditional Punjab Hindu wedding.
From the storyline there is a basic link between all of this movies and the filmmaker, the cultural background, she is an Indian filmmakers and all this movies are greatly influenced by indian culture. Mira Nair comes from a conservative Indian family but has been exposed to international exchanges and has lived abroad. Her movies do not only include the Indian cultural element; but also the intercultural mix, the understanding, the cultural shock, and the complications behind the integration, she addresses the issues of the global village, globalization and clashes of cultures, in a personal level, which are all more and more relatable to a greatest part of the population in this hyper connected World. On Mississippi Masala the female main character Mina has to struggle between her own cultural identity and her parents traditions as well as her boyfriends racial fights as a black young boy in the Mississippi. Both of this characters struggle with a racists society and conflicting family interests. This movie can be really related to Mira Nair herself who is married to a Ugandan professor but both live in New York. In Monsoon Wedding, even though is set in Indian and it’s an indian family, many members of the family live abroad and have international background, creating this “multicultural setting” in a traditional indian wedding.
In New York I love you, it’s clearly even more international since the two characters are in one of the most international cities, but that also they keep the strong and orthodox and traditional lifestyle.
Beyond the story itself, I think Mira Nair depicts her own personal experiences to a great extend in these movies to the everyday aspect, not only in the plot of the story but also on the development of the relationships and all the details of the family life. One aspect for example is the bilingual or trilingual conversations, the natural change of language and the comfort of an understood cultural mix. In New York I Love You for example, they are speaking in English but also secretly speaking in Yiddish and Hindi both knowing that they understand each. And in the other two movies, inside the family they speak Hindi and English to different extends in different situations. Another aspect which I can also relate to her life and myself, is the understanding of the minorities and strong cultures between themselves; once abroad even if the cultures are completely different there is an understanding of being the minority or discriminated in a new place which Mira Nair captures really well; in Mississippi Masala the African Americans that had been discriminated for years and the recently migrated Indian Americans that are also being discriminated to an extend; and in New York, I Love You the hasidic Jewish and the Hindus, even though there is no cultural similarities, there is a bonding and understanding of strong cultures and traditions and the minorities that goes beyond the culture itself.
The last aspect which I want to comment on about this three movies and the author is the multilayered aspects of them all; to an extend there are always more than one story happening at the same time, all related in a way or another; In New York, I love You, the two stories run parallel to each other, the wedding of the hasidic woman and the memories of the Hindu; and in Mississippi Masala the stories of the two families also run almost independently of each other. And in Monsoon Wedding, there are many stories happening at the same time, the servants, the uncle, the broom and the bride and others. I am not sure if it can be directly related to the director’s life, but I do believe that by living in many places and many situations she might have started to realize the many aspects of one story. By growing up in Orissa with a civil servant family to later study in a prestigious university in New Delhi, to then transfer to Harvard to then live in New York and travel a lot has given her the opportunity to not only see many cultures but also see and pay attentions to the many layers of society in one culture.
