Nair, Mira

▪ 2003

      Early 2002 was a busy time for film director-producer-writer Mira Nair. On Sept. 8, 2001, Monsoon Wedding captured the Golden Lion for best picture at the Venice Film Festival. It was a rare honour, as she was only the second Indian, after Satyajit Ray in 1957, to win the award. For independent filmmakers Nair's win was a cause for jubilation—Monsoon Wedding was shot in little over a month for her own Mirabai Films, Inc., using handheld cameras and an ensemble cast that boasted only one big name. Furniture and costumes—including silk saris and traditional gold wedding jewelry—were borrowed from her family. Monsoon Wedding, an exuberant look at four days leading up to a Punjabi wedding set against the backdrop of modern urban India, was the latest achievement in Nair's offbeat oeuvre, much of which revolved around the themes of exile and cultural identity. In January 2002 the movie was a nominee for best foreign film at the Golden Globe Awards. At the same time, Nair's latest effort, Hysterical Blindness, a mainstream Hollywood film with no Indian actors, had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, before being broadcast on HBO. The filmmaker traveled to Germany in February to serve as head of the Berlin Film Festival jury. Less than a month later she was back in New York City to give the 2002 Zora Neale Hurston lecture for Columbia University's Institute for Research in African-American Studies.

      Nair's unique take on expatriate life stemmed from her own identity as a global citizen. She was born on Oct. 15, 1957, in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India, and was educated at the University of Delhi. She moved to the U.S. in 1976 for postgraduate studies in sociology at Harvard University, but she soon developed an interest in cinema. Her debut film, India Cabaret (1985), was a documentary about “dance bars,” or strip joints, in Mumbai (Bombay). This was followed two years later by Children of Desired Sex.

      Nair's first feature film, Salaam Bombay! (1988)—a documentary-style account of urban street children—was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign-language film and won the Camera d'Or (best first feature) and the Prix du Publique (most popular entry) at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. Mississippi Masala (1991), a cross-cultural, interracial romance that won three awards at the Venice Film Festival, explored the lives of Indian refugees from Uganda resettled in the U.S., while The Perez Family (1995), traced the lives of Cuban immigrants in the U.S. Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996) was a controversial look at female sexuality in ancient India, but the movie bombed. With My Own Country (1998), a real-life account of a young Indian doctor tackling the start of the AIDS epidemic in the American South, Nair returned to familiar ground, capturing the expatriate experience on celluloid. She followed with another documentary, The Laughing Club of India (1999).

      When not making movies, Nair was an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University in New York City, where she lived with her second husband, Ugandan-born political scientist Mahmood Mamdani, and their son.

Shalaka Paradkar

▪ 1998

      Indian director Mira Nair moved from the screening room to the courtroom in 1997 as she battled India's censors over the release of her fourth feature film, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. Inspired by the ancient Sanskrit love manual, the movie sought to demonstrate the marriage of spirituality and sexuality through the story of a princess and her servant who find empowerment in the book's teachings. Though it was released abroad without incident, the Indian censorship board deemed the film pornographic and refused to certify it for public viewing. In a country where screen kisses were forbidden until 1983 and nudity on film remained banned, Kama Sutra was highly controversial. As censors demanded cuts, Nair petitioned the Indian Supreme Court. Though delays had prevented a ruling, Nair, who once compared filmmaking to war, vowed to fight for the movie's release in her homeland.

      Nair was born in 1957 in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, India. She became stagestruck at an early age and performed in school plays before entering (1975) the University of Delhi. She left the following year, however, to study in the United States at Harvard University. There she developed an interest in directing after taking a documentary filmmaking class. For her thesis in sociology, she produced her first documentary, Jama Masjid Street Journal (1979), a record of a traditional Muslim community as viewed through a lens instead of a veil. Nair then created a series of gritty and realistic documentaries that examined India's traditions and culture, including Children of a Desired Sex (1987), which addressed the country's patriarchal society and its detrimental effects on pregnant women and their unborn female children. Her television documentary India Cabaret (1985), a portrait of two aging striptease dancers, received numerous international awards.

      In the late 1980s Nair turned her attention to feature films. She produced, directed, and co-wrote Salaam Bombay! (1988), the story of an 11-year-old boy who is abandoned by his parents and forced to live on the streets. Using documentary techniques and street people instead of professional actors, the vivid and disturbing movie won the Camera d'Or and the Prix du Publique at the Cannes Film Festival. Nair's follow-up was the acclaimed Mississippi Massala (1991), which chronicled a love affair between an Indian woman reared in Uganda and an African-American man living in a small town in the southern U.S. Nair, who served as co-producer and director, examined racial biases while avoiding typical stereotypes. She continued to explore cross-cultural conflicts in The Perez Family (1995), which centred on Cuban émigrés living in Miami, Fla. Nair's first big-budget movie, it fared poorly at the box office, and the director stated her preference for the smaller, independent films that marked her early career.

AMY TIKKANEN

* * *

▪ Indian film director

born October 15, 1957, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, India

      Indian director known for her documentaries and feature films dealing with controversial subject matter.

      Nair entered the University of Delhi in 1975. She left the following year to study at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she developed an interest in documentary filmmaking. For her thesis in sociology, she produced her first documentary, Jama Masjid Street Journal (1979), a record of a traditional Muslim community. Nair then created a series of gritty and realistic documentaries that examined India's traditions and culture, including Children of a Desired Sex (1987), which examines the country's patriarchal society and its effects on unborn female children, and India Cabaret (1985), a portrait of two aging striptease dancers.

      In the late 1980s Nair turned her attention to feature films. She produced, directed, and cowrote the acclaimed film Salaam Bombay! (1988), the story of an 11-year-old boy living on the streets that is told using documentary techniques and street people instead of professional actors. Nair followed this with Mississippi Massala (1991), which chronicled a love affair between an Indian woman and an African American man. In 1997 she was at the centre of controversy as she battled India's censors—eventually involving the Indian Supreme Court—over the release of the feature film Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love.

* * *