Mira Nair needs no introduction. Her films especially Salaam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding have put Indian cinema on the global map.
Mira, now busy with her son’s political career in the US, looks back at Monsoon Wedding with affection. “I didn’t expect the recognition for the simple reason that while making the film we weren’t thinking of awards and rewards. Monsoon Wedding was made in the spirit of lightness, experimentation and discovery. It was done in a new authentic style with a hand-held camera. In any case I never think of the outcome from beforehand.”
Though there are 68 characters in it, Monsoon Wedding was planned and executed as a small film. So where did this epic triumph creep into her vision? Nair is no stranger to unexpected victories. Her first feature film Salaam Bombay , which many critics abroad compared with Hector Babenco’s Brazilian classic on street children Pixote, was a runaway commercial success in the West.
The film actually used street children of Mumbai to capture the poignant parody and perverse pathos of learning to survive at an age when kids need to be educated and weaned on right values. Salaam Bombay was the first Indian film since Mehboob Khan’s Mother India to make it into the Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Film.
It was the first Indian film since Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali to be embraced so wholeheartedly by the international movie community. The film’s raw energy and stark power came from Nair’s nine-year stint as a documentary maker . During this period she not only made the celebrated India Cabaret, about aging dancers in club in Mumbai, but other lesser known short films and documentaries like Jama Masjid Street Journal and So Far From India.
Nair’s cinema about marginalized communities has always hit pay dirt. The 68-year old daughter of a civil servant was born in Orissa and educated in Simla and New Delhi. In 1976, Nair went to Harvard where she graduated in Sociology. Instant international success with Salaam Bombay goaded Nair’s intimate socio-cultural cinema into attempting a film on a grander canvas.
Though a lot of analysts considered Nair’s next film Mississippi Masala a failed epic, there’s a kernel of immediacy in the narrative, as though the director’s intuitive affinity to intimate character portraits refused to be thwarted by the film’s huge canvas. Mississippi Masala was an inter-continental drama about an Indian émigré (Roshan Seth) from Uganda migrating to the US where his daughter falls in love with an African American (Denzel Washington).
Nair’s next film The Perez Family saw her getting into mainstream Hollywood filmmaking. As she lost her ethic plumes, Nair became assimilated into Hollywood’s Big Dream. The Perez Family in 1995 featured mainstream Hollywood actors like Anjelica Huston and Marisa Tomei playing Cuban immigrants in America.
As the American Dream sucked Nair into itself she plunged into her most self defeating and pretentious effort. Kamasutra unabashedly tried to sell Indian erotica to the West. The film’s plunging and plummeting content , unredeemed by Rekha’s strong cameo, brought Nair’s reputation down considerably.
With Monsoon Wedding Nair returned to her ethnic cinematic roots. The film took a long hard and hilarious look at a typical Punjabi wedding in Delhi. “I wanted to turn the weddings seen in Hindi films like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Hum Aapke Hain Koun on its head. Salaam Bombay had a very important influence on the Indian government’s policies on children. Our Salaam Baalak Trust is directly linked to policy makers. In fact, I offered the services of our Trust to Danny Boyle for his kids in Slumdog Millionaire. They didn’t need to invent new wheels to look after their kids. Mujhe kya maloom why they didn’t take up my offer.”
Interestingly one of Mira’s favourite actors Irrfan Khan had a small role in Salaam Bombay.
Laughs Mira, “What a joy to see him as a fresh-faced 18-year old in Salaam Bombay. I took him out of NSD and I cast him as one of the main kids. But he was super-tall so he didn’t work out physically as part of the group.So I had to uncast him. He still had one scene as a scribe. From then on I was a guilt trip until I cast Irrfan in The Namesake. For Ashok Gangooly in The Namesake he was perfect.”
Says Mira, “They say you take your greatest risks when doing your first film. I still try to be fearless. My second film Mississippi Masala too was free of fears. It was about the compulsions behind being brown between black and white. The film was saying something dangerous. Denzel Washington had just won the Oscar and he could’ve done any film. But he chose Mississippi Masala because as he said, he was knocked out by Salaam Bombay and because the Asian-African love-story had never been seen before.I’d say my three most beloved films are Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake.”
