MISSISSIPPI MASALA
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
MISSISSIPPI MASALA is a film by Mira Nair. The script was written by Sooni Toraparevala. The film stars Denzel Washington, Roshan Seth, Sarita Choudhury, Sharmila Tagore. It is rated R for sexual situations.
MISSISSIPPI MASALA is the creation of the same director who gave us SALAAM BOMBAY! (1988), one of my favorite films of all time. MASALA does not have the visceral impact as the film about Bombay's street kids, but it does have the same sweetness and affection for its characters. This film is a variation on Romeo and Juliet, for all intents and purposes, wherein the opposing families are African-Americans and transplanted African-Indians, coexisting in Greenwood, Mississippi, superficially peaceful until Demetrius (Denzel Washington), the self-starter with his own carpet-cleaning business, crosses the invisible line and finds himself in a situation with the dark-skinned Mina. Mina (Sarita Choudhury) is the 24-year-old daughter of a former lawyer (Roshan Seth) who is consumed with getting back his Ugandan citizenship, lost when Idi Amin expelled all the Indians in his country in 1972. Her mother (Sharmila Tagore) runs a liquor store and tries to run Mina's life and marry her off to slightly slimey Hari.
Like EUROPA, EUROPA, another film about racism and displacement, MASALA is concerned first with the characters' quest for identity, for finding a place that is home. The Indians seem to take India with them whether they are in Kampala or Greenwood (Mina herself has never been to India). The Indians, especially a trio of men, seem to be somewhat stock characters, figures of satire, on whom little love is wasted; the most sympathetic of the three is played by Ranjit Chowdry (LONELY IN AMERICA, 1991) as a motel owner. The black characters are treated overall more affectionately. However, it is Nair's skill with the major actors that makes MASALA worthy of your attention. Certainly the story itself is familiar and predictable.
Denzel Washington is just as charming and handsome as ever, obviously having a great time playing a homeboy. Sarita Choudhury is innocently sensual, fiercely determined to become her own person; the actress grew up in Jamaica--look for her Bob Marley T-shirt. Sharmila Tagore, a regular in the films of Indian master Satyajit Ray, is strong-willed, loving, frightened for her daughter and her husband, the sole support of the family while the father is lost in his dreams of return. He is played by Roshan Seth, who played Nehru in GANDHI (1982); he is deeply sympathetic, and infuriating at the same time. It is his personal discoveries that are the backbone of the movie.
MISSISSIPPI MASALA (masala is explained in the movie as being mixed up, like spices) satirizes the rivalries of two oppressed races in the former heartland of racial oppression. It says racial bigotry is not only irrational, but doomed to die. The final scene, at Entebbe Airport, involving Seth and an black African baby is deeply moving and emotional, a symbol that passes beyond explication and says it all at the same time.
I recommend MISSISSIPPI MASALA to you at whatever price you need to pay.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
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