Movie Review
Mississippi Masala: Review and Afterthought
Mississippi Masala is about finding taste in an odd masala; it is an odd everyday drama of saying too much and saying too little
By Usman Riaz
“Mississippi Masala? Sounds like a Hollywood film where someone falls for a desi person”, comments a friend. Well, yes. It is that. But if you’ve watched anything else by Mira Nair, then you know that it’s not going to be just that.
Mississippi Masala begins in Kampala, Uganda in the year 1972. Idi Amin’s vision blaring across the Country “Africa for Africans — Black Africans”. The film begins as Jay, Kinnu, and Meena, an ethnically Indian family, pack their bags to leave Africa.
The map pans, and the music changes; a fusion of Maraca and Tabla fades out…into a peppy Country tune.
Enter Mississippi, and it is as American as it can get: supermarkets, road accidents, and lawsuits. Everyone has a hard time adjusting, or rather trying not to adjust: Jay in a struggle to get back to Uganda, Kinnu trying hard to get her (daughter) Meena married off; Meena trying to avoid just that. Adding more masala to the already complicated, Meena begins a love affair with Demetrius Williams, an Afro-American —…
