Director: Mira Nair
Original Release: September 18, 1991
My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5
 |
| via Amazon |
Mississippi Masala is an unusual film for the fact that it explores an interracial romance that doesn't include any white people. Mina (Sarita Choudhury) and Demetrius (Denzel Washington) fall in love in rural Mississippi after meeting each other in a traffic accident. The affair complicates matters for both of their families. It was the first movie for Choudhury. For Washington, it was a stepping stone on his meteoric rise to Hollywood royalty, after Glory and Mo' Better Blues but before Malcolm X and Philadelphia.
Food plays an important role in the story, both literally and metaphorically. Masala refers to the Indian spice mix, a metaphor Mina uses to describe the relationship. Demetrius invites Mina to a birthday party for his grandfather involving loads of soul food. Yum...
I first watched the movie on VHS back in the early '90s. The Vermont International Film Festival hosted a screening a few weekends ago. Evidently, I'd forgotten quite a lot of the details in the intervening years. Running parallel with the Mina/Demetrius tale is the history of Mina's family in Uganda. They were kicked out when Idi Amin expelled all Asians from the country. Mina's father Jay (Roshan Seth) has been working for years to get back and reclaim the family's property.
I'd forgotten the Uganda story entirely.
Overall, the acting is excellent - loads of character actor types. The movie's very pretty, too, even beyond the two glamorously beautiful leads. For scenery, Africa outshines Mississippi but both are presented lovingly. The racial politics of the Deep South are exactly what you'd expect, though not portrayed as heavy-handed as they could have been. The Uganda story takes an unfortunately colonialist view but is interesting nonetheless. In both cases, the unusual Asian perspective is a refreshing change.
No comments:
Post a Comment