Indian-American director Mira Nair originally had no intention of becoming a filmmaker and expected to study sociology. That’s what she studied in India before attending Harvard University, but it was at Harvard that she joined the campus theater club and sparked a passion for performing. Acting would lead her into filmmaking where she started making documentaries about Indian cultural traditions, even turning her Harvard thesis into a documentary set in the streets of Old Delhi. Nair would continue to make documentaries throughout her career as a filmmaker, but in 1983 she co-wrote and directed her first feature film: Salam Bombay!
Salam Bombay! was a huge success and put Nair on the map. With her co-writer Sooni Taraporevala, she followed this up with the release of Mississippi Massala in 1991, which discussed the presence and experiences of Indians born in Uganda living in rural Mississippi. Nair has continued to do TV shows, shorts, documentaries and films throughout her career – she was even asked to direct Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at a given moment. Nair’s subjects are diverse and show an interest in the stories that often fail Hollywood, ultimately proving that South Asians have stories beyond Bollywood romance. She will direct the upcoming reimagined National treasure series on Disney+ and an adaptation of a short story by Ellen Barry. Until then, these are her best films to date.
6/6 Queen of Katwe
Queen of Katwe, which came out in 2016, tells an inspiring true story about the slums of Uganda. A young girl named Phiona Mutsei, played by Madina Nalwanga, is ten years old and lives in the slums of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. She helps her mother and brother as they try to survive in their daily circumstances and lives, but when she meets someone through the missionary program, he teaches her how to play chess. This changes her life forever; she is taken to local competitions and wins them all, earning a spot on the Ugandan team. Her family’s hopes and dreams prey on her as she hopes to earn enough money to provide for them.
5/6 The hesitant fundamentalist
Released in 2012, The hesitant fundamentalist was many years in the making before it saw the light of day. Nair based the film on a novel of the same name by Mohsin Hamid. Riz Ahmed and Kate Hudson star in the movie. An American professor is kidnapped in Pakistan and his colleague, Changez (Ahmed), is said to be involved in the kidnapping. He was on a scholarship to Princeton University, but when 9/11 happened in the US, his life changed. Changez has been racially profiled and targeted by agents, leaving him with a burning rage about what is happening now and about the US intervention in Pakistan.
4/6 Salam Bombay!
The movie that introduced Mira Nair to the world, Salam Bombay! was nominated for a plethora of awards when it was released, though it was considered a foreign film due to its subject matter and language (Hindi). The camera focuses on the world’s largest slums in Mumbai, where there are street children forced to survive in the most difficult circumstances. Some of the cast actors were real street kids from the area. A young boy sets fire to his brother’s motorcycle after being bullied, and his mother forces him to work in the circus. He leaves home when the circus packs up to find work, only to meet people in much worse circumstances than him.
3/6 Monsoon wedding
Monsoon wedding is about its namesake: a wedding that happens with a flair for the dramatic. An arranged marriage is about to be made and the wedding brings together family members from all corners of the world. This opportunity will be grand and expensive, which will lead to financial hardship for some targets, while other family members will come from complicated situations abroad. Monsoon wedding has packed a lot of drama into its story, along with a wide spread of characters, which makes it a little hard to remember whose story belongs to who at times, but it turns out to be worth it in the end.
2/6 The namesake
Based on the novel of the same name by Jhumpa Lahiri, The namesake tells the story of Gogol, a son of Bangladeshi immigrants to the United States. The novel covers a lot of ground and the movie stays true to the spirit of the original story. It begins with Ashoke and Ashima’s immigration from Kolkata to New York City, where they raise their two children, Gogol and Sonia. Despite the parents trying to stay intact in their culture and homeland, Gogol grows up rebellious and more American than Indian, leading to some major cultural clashes between his parents and him.
1/6 Mississippi Massala
Located in the depths of rural Mississippi, Mississippi Massala is a unique story about Ugandan-born Indians living in the American South. Basically the movie is a love story. An Indian family flees Uganda and settles in Mississippi to start over, laying the foundations for a new life after Uganda expels its entire Indian population. The family’s daughter, Mina, welcomes her new life to America and falls in love with a local black man, played by Denzel Washington. She keeps the relationship a secret because she knows her parents would never approve, while also dealing with resentment from the local black communities he is also a part of.