..Mira Nair

IF WE DON'T TELL OUR STORIES, NOBODY ELSE WILL.

Pardon the cliché but Mira Nair is a woman of substance! I tend to use this term only when I genuinely mean it. I got to speak to this accomplished Film Director/Writer/Producer about her past films, current projects and what she has planned for the future. A very down-to-earth soul, with a great way with her words; her astute mastery of the English language comes across as she talks about film; her passion.

AlthoughMira Nair was born in India; she went to Uganda in 1989 to research her movie, Mississippi Masala, and has lived there since. This is where she met her husband, Mahmood Mamdani and had her son, Zohran, who was born in 1991. Mahmood is a third generation Asian living in Uganda and Mira has now openly embraced her 'East Africaness' saying that at one time she was a daughter-in-law of Uganda, but today she is very much a daughter of the great nation. Although she is deeply rooted in India and that is where most of her inspiration comes from as she has incredible respect and love for the Indian film industry, she feels that she is a citizen of many worlds.

Mira began her film career as an actor and then turned to directing award-winning documentaries.Her entrance into the international film world was made with the movie Salaam Bombay! which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988. Then came Mississippi Masala; the story of an interracial love story starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury was another award winning film garnering three awards at the Venice Film Festival including Best Screenplay and The Audience Choice AwardSubsequent films include The Perez Family with Marisa Tomei, Anjelica Huston, Alfred Molina and Chazz Palminteri, about an exiled Cuban family in Miami; and the sensuous Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, which she directed and co-wrote. In the summer of 2000, Nair shot Monsoon Wedding in 30 days, a story of a Punjabi wedding starring Naseeruddin Shah and an ensemble of Indian actors. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, Monsoon Wedding also won a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and opened worldwide to tremendous critical and commercial acclaim. Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Nair joined a group of 11 renowned filmmakers, each commissioned to direct a film that was 11 minutes, 9 seconds and one frame long. Nair's film is a retelling of real events in the life of the Hamdani family in Queens, whose eldest son was missing after September 11, and was then accused by the media of being a terrorist. 11.09.01 is the true story of a mother's search for her son who did not return home on that fateful day. In May 2003, Nair helmed the Focus Features production of the Thackeray classic, Vanity Fair, a provocative period tale set in post-colonial England, in which Reese Witherspoon plays the lead, Becky Sharp. Her latest film, The Namesake, premiered in the fall of 2006 at Dartmouth College where Ms. Nair was presented with the Dartmouth Film Award. The Dartmouth Film Award, established in 1979, honors outstanding contributors to film and filmmaking. Previous winners have included Johnny Depp, Robert Redford, Liv Ullman, Ken Burns, Ang Lee, Glenn Close, and Meryl Streep. Another premiere was held in fall 2006 with the Indo-American Cultural Council in New York. The Namesake, adapted by Sooni Taraporevala from the novel by Pulitzer prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, was released in March of 2007.

I got to speak to her on the phone in an exclusive interview and asked her about the many famous names that she has worked with and who she would love to work with in the future. Her tone was very motherly and calming and her confident reply was; 

 "I don't sit and hanker for this actor or that actor, my cast depends on my script and I have had the pleasure of working with some great names. Come 2008 I will be working with Johnny Depp and Amitabh Bachchan in the movie Shantaram." One thing that many a critic and fan notices is that she is able to blend the Hollywood star with a Bollywood star; perhaps the only directorable to execute this on screen very naturally.”

Mira is unique in many ways, one thing that stands out about this outstanding individual is that she wants to see others achieve. Her project Maisha in remarkable, a film lab to help East Africans and South Asians learn to make films. Maisha is headquartered in Nair's adopted home of Kampala, Uganda. 

"I am very happy to read about the Kenyan movie Malooned securing a deal for international release. This is what we are here to do. Maisha gives you the know how to make cinema. We don't want to make movies jua kali style, we want them to have that international standard. At Maisha we foster writers, directors and producers. Our challenges include sifting our students and creating great scripts that we can make movies out of. Also, we want to make Maisha a permanent home for the local community."

“Maisha's mission is to provide new screenwriters and film directors from East Africa and South Asia with access to the professional training and production resources necessary to articulate their visions. Maisha aims to preserve, cultivate and unleash local voices from these regions, and to become one of the first targeted programs to offer structured and accessible resources to these emerging filmmakers. Maisha is motivated by the belief that a film which explores the truths and idiosyncrasies of the specifically local often has the power to cross over and become significantly universal. The Maisha Advisory Committee includes Sofia Coppola, Raoul Peck, Peter Chappell, Karen Cooper, Lydia Dean Pilcher, Spike Lee, Sabrina Dhawan, Liz MacLennan, Mumbi Kaigwa, Amandina Lihamba, Eric Kabera, and Michelle Satter. This group of internationally recognized directors, artists, and academics has been instrumental in supporting Maisha's mission. You can support Maisha too, log on to their website and find out how www.maishafilmlab.com.”

"We want to honor our own heroes" she says "people forget because there is no place to remember and we must equip ourselves with the craft. We have stories of dignity and power."

Mira Nair was honored as the ''Pride of India'' at a Bollywood awards on May 26 at the Nassau Coliseum, New York for her contributions to the film industry.

We chatted more about her and myself but that is all too personal to put down for all to read. All I can say is talking to a humble soul such as Mira Nair inspired me more to dream bigger and achieve more!