Mira Nair

Mira Nair, like Robert Altman who we viewed before her, was a less than familiar face on the list of directors we were to watch this year. I had heard her name and knew of but had never seen the movie Monsoon Wedding. I think that her films were a nice touch to the agenda, being of foreign heritage and of the opposite sex of all the other directors that we viewed.

One of the main aspects of Mira Nair's films that I found to be interesting was the way that she mixed her traditional Indian heritage with the contemporary, increasingly globalized world. This is especially apparent in her film The Namesake (2007). The main conflict in this movie revolves around Kal Penn's character and how he must go between his Indian heritage, which is deep and very traditional, and his lifestyle he must keep up in the United States to be considered "normal and accepted by other members of society.

This is also readily apparent in Monsoon Wedding, albeit to a less extent, with events such as the bride having to choose between her life in India or her new life in America as well as inter family conflict like the molester uncle which are atypical contemporary issues.

I think that through these scenes and themes throughout her movies Mira is perhaps adding, as all good directors do, a little piece of herself into her movie. Reflected here are perhaps hardships that she has had to go through and she thinks it best to move those feelings on to the big screen, and rightfully so.