Last July,The Criterion Channel releaseda new restoration ofMira Nair’s groundbreaking romantic dramaMississippi Masala. So, it feels essential to both celebrate the film’s role in redefining thecross-culturalcinematic romance and acknowledge the continued relevancy of the film’s message concerning racial equity. Starring cinematic iconsDenzel WashingtonandSarita Choudhuryas Demetrius and Mina,Mississippi Masalaintricately interweaves the emotional experience of a young interracial couple forced to navigate the prejudices of their families as well as the layers of historical pain fostered in their previous and current communities.
The film parallels the traumatic tensions of Mina’s family’s expulsion from Uganda under dictator Idi Amin and the stateside racial discrimination faced by Demetrius’s family for decades prior in Mississippi. Through this, Nair presents a nuanced vision of racial reckoning centered on overcoming personal pain through communal experiences and emotional confrontations in both Mississippi and Uganda. With the film’s focus on the chemistry between and narrative trajectory of Washington’s Demetrius and Choudhury’s Mina,Mississippi Masalatranscends the superficialRomeo and Juliet-style trappingsof cross-cultural love to present a sumptuous, sensual, and sensitive revision of both on-screen interracial romance and complex cultural reconciliation.
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‘Mississippi Masala’ Makes Perfect Use of Its Setting
Before diving into the power of the central duo’s breathtaking performances, it is necessary to elevate the cultural importance and narrative intricacy of the film’s sense of place in the American South as rendered through the collaborative work of director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) and cinematographerEd Lachman(Carol). By locating the majority of the love story in the communal spaces across a small town in coastal Mississippi, Nair allows her ensemble to meander between more mundane moments, navigating notions of social difference at everyday settings like grocery stores, motels, and potlucks throughout the film.
Nair’s focus on the specificity of shopping for milk at the Piggly Wiggly and dancing at The Leopard Lounge provides the potentially formulaic plot points of cultural adaptation and even personal connection with irreplaceable local textures. This allowsMississippi Masalato spatially mirror the sense of fusion evoked through its title. In particular, Demetrius and Mina’s romantic getaway to the beachside town of Biloxi sees both Nair and Lachman render their relationship with a summery sensuality often associated with oceanside holidays. The humid hues of green and yellow that populate Lachman’s vision of the couple’s beachside rendezvous and playful evening at the pier-set fun fair exude an atmosphere of romantic vitality and youthful yearning that sets the film apart as a particularly compelling romantic tale.
‘Mississippi Massala’ Powerfully Confronts Racism and Colorism
Although the sense of place at the center ofMississippi Masalaimbues the narrative with a sense of sun-drenched hope, Nair’s meditation on establishing community and redefining home in a new place nuances the film’s engagement with American opportunity to reveal the complexities of cultural pain at both personal and systemic levels. From the systemic racism and classism that affects the daily lives of the central ensemble to the symptomatic colorism perpetrated between the Indian American andAfrican-American communities;Mississippi Masalaaccommodates the rampant racialized pain that permeates the titular Southern state through the microaggressions of white locals and subtle jabs between communities concerning behavioral differences.
Although the romance between Demetrius and Mina remains the primary point of scrutiny from the passively opposing communities, one of the most unexpected reckonings with the difficulties of cultural adjustment within the film is the experience of Mina’s father, Jay (Roshan Seth). Combatting his traumatic experience with prejudice in Uganda with accidental prejudices from his own overprotective strategies in America, Nair reveals Jay as a well-meaning yet emotionally wounded father rather than a single-minded, one-dimensional villain. By confronting Jay’s prejudices through a heated conversation with Demetrius concerning his romance with Mina, Nair affords Jay the narrative space to overcome his own misgivings and racial misconceptions. Further solidified in a bittersweet final sequence of Jay’s return to Uganda after their exodus, both Nair and Seth set Jay apart as one of the most dynamic characters in the film, expressing his middle-aged maturation and patient reeducation with incredible grace by the film’s conclusion.
Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury’s Chemistry Lifts the Movie
to adequately assess the overarching power ofMississippi Masala, it is essential to praise the undeniable connection and performative naturalism of Washington and Choudhury as Demetrius and Mina. Even as the sociopolitical themes of the film are weighty and the ensemble style of the storytelling could potentially decenter the romantic core, Nair’s pairing of Washington with Choudhury cuts through a potentially harrowing family narrative with empathy and restoration, recentering the film at every turn. From a particularly profound lake-side scene culminating in one of the best kisses in cinema to incredibly sensuous phone calls, each scene showcasing the central couple taps into a well of on-screen chemistry that deserves a place in the canon of classic cinematic romances. Even as the central actors foreground the authentic sensuality of their characters in each scene, both Washington and Choudhury infuse an effortless sense of humor and emotional restraint into their romance.
Perhaps the most romantically effervescent sequence in the film is the couple’s mid-film weekend trip to Biloxi. Interweaving thoughtful discussions of mutual experiences of systemic racism alongside tilt-a-whirl-set talks about traveling the world together, Nair emphasizes the beauty and purity of the couple’s mutual pursuit of a life together as well as their attempts for personal freedom from the cultural and familial barriers between them. While Denzel exhibits Demetrius’s flirtatious charm and genuine care through subtle shifts in body language and effortless smiles, Choudhury commands the screen with a quiet confidence and a constant aura of self-reflection, equally highlighting their individuality and compatibility at every turn. By culminating the sequence with an exceedingly tender love scene, Nair defines the beating heart ofMississippi Masalaas a graceful ebb and flow between individuals, communities, and cultures. The transcendent unity that Demetrius and Mina represent through their equally joyous and grounded love exemplifies the layers of socio-cultural and romantically personal potential at the core of Nair’s masterpiece, setting the film apart as an unparalleled achievement in the cross-cultural romantic drama.
