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Mira Nair, the Indian director, scored an international art-house hit with her feature debut,
Salaam Bombay!, a tale of life in the streets of seething urban India. Her next film was a surprising turnabout:
Mississippi Masala is a cultural study and a love story set in the rural American south. The love story comes courtesy of Denzel Washington, as a rug cleaner, and Sarita Choudhury (from Nair's
Kama Sutra), as the daughter of Indian immigrants running a small-time motel; both give fresh, charming performances. But Nair is equally interested in capturing the feelings of an exile's life, and Roshan Seth, the fine actor who played Nehru in
Gandhi, superbly catches the hope and sorrow of dislocation. Although the issues are serious, Nair maintains a breezy, naturalistic approach, and the various ingredients of this masala blend into a rich, flavorful stew.
--Robert Horton
Review
During a tour of the Deep South in 1988, director Mira Nair learned that a number of Indian immigrants were operating motels in the area, an experience which became the inspiration for this lively, seductive tale of interracial romance. Sarita Choudhury stars as Mina, the daughter of previously affluent Indian immigrants who run a motel in Mississippi. When her voluptuous beauty catches the eye of rug-cleaning contractor Demetrius (Denzel Washington), love blossoms, but the lovers' families are less than enthusiastic. While the film centers on a hot romance, it's also a fascinating study of a unique immigrant community with a richness of detail that borders on the ethnographic, as well as a telling examination of class and status anxiety. The smoldering, sensual attraction between the two leads has such an explosiveness that it's clear they were meant to be together. Yet to her father (Roshan Seth), a former lawyer who still dreams of his beautiful house on a hill in Uganda, this rug man is simply a creature from a lower caste. The director touches gently on the irony of this discrimination being practiced in an area synonymous with racial strife, and by a man who is subject to the same kind of exclusion by whites. Indeed, considering its serious subject, Nair never forgets the humorous aspects of the situation. Washington and Chourhury are wonderful as the almost impossibly attractive couple, and Seth is memorable in a difficult role. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide