Mississippi Masala

I love this movie. I first saw it as a preteen and did not understand the concept. I have recently got the DVD as a gift and watch it over and over again and learn something else from it each time. Sarita Choudhury is one of the best actresses of our time and I respect her decision to not want to go "Hollywood". She has appeared in movies with substance and a message unlike the movies that are coming out in mainstream Hollywood. Denzel Washington is a great actor in this movie as well. Playing Demitrius, you really see his versatility as an actor. Mississippi Masala touches a new kind of racism not shown in movies before. Dark skin vs. light skin seems to go across every ethnicity in the world and I respect Mira Nair for making this film. Although the movie or its actors didn't receive the attention or awards (i.e. an Oscar) for their extraordinary performance, this is a must see movie and it will change your mind about the caliber of movies you choose to see from now on.

Some may think that all it is about is the race relations between Asian Indians and Blacks in Southern USA. I saw it as collection of stories, each running along its own thread while impacting others at the same time. There is a love story between a Black guy and an Asian Indian (by way of Africa) girl, there is a man trying to regain his lost homeland (which some may consider artificial), there are others who are trying to fit into the new-new-South, a younger brother who is a bother and a motel owner who doesn't understand the people around him. All in all, a well knit story.

The theme of interracial romance is the setting for this fine drama and focus on the divisions between black Americans and South Asian communities. Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury are appealing as the central figures from different backgrounds and struggle to stay together amid the controversy that swirls around them. Washington and Choudhury have a nice chemistry that works very well in this picture and makes their romance even more believable. They have their share of ups and downs and face challenges to their relationship like any normal couple. The movie touches on the origins of the immigrant status of the South Asians which began when they were expelled from Uganda many years earlier. The resentment towards blacks is a recurring theme in the movie as they settle into their new communities in the deep south. The film has a bouncy music score that adds flavor to the story and a nice cast weaves everything together in fine style.

In the early 20th century, the English government moved several people from India to Uganda to build the railroad. Some of the Indians stayed and became lawyers, physicians, etc. When Idi Amin came to power in the early 1970s, he expelled all non-black Africans. Some of the Indians moved to Mississippi and began running motels.

"Mississippi Masala" focuses on this. Mina (Sarita Choudhury) is the daughter of an Indian family who fled Uganda for Mississippi. She develops a relationship with Demetrius (Denzel Washington), a local man. Her family does not approve of her dating a black man, and Demetrius' friends don't like him dating an Indian woman.

The movie shows many things, in particular how both the blacks and the Indians were displaced from their ancestral lands. Also, it shows how the blacks are racist towards the Indians and vice versa. As Demetrius reminds Mina's father: "Your skin is just a couple of shades from mine." Regardless of whether or not these sorts of things happen a lot, the movie does a very good job with it all.

This movie showed one thing that is totally true about many Indians in America (I don't know about England). Many Indians who immigrate to this country start acting and behaving like they are white. Sometimes they forget that they are not even white (I am guilty of that sometimes too, probably even more because I grew up here). Denzel Washington points that out to Roshan Seth very well in this movie. "You are no more than a few shades from my complexion." And then Jammu point out to Anil how he has started to act American (probably means white American), and Anil says, "So what? I'm living in America! You don't like it? Go back to India!"

Overall, it's a really good movie. I like it even more than "Monsoon Wedding," and I feel this movie was very underrated. My seventh grade teacher recommended this movie a long time ago (actually a few mos. after I saw it myself.) I myself have been recommending it to some of my non-Indian college friends who have seen Monsoon Wedding.