“On the way from the airport to the Doubletree (Hotel), I was on the phone pitching my new movie, and I learned a new Hollywood term: the ‘non-Caucasian film,'” director Mira Nair told a full audience Tuesday night in McCormick Auditorium.
This was precisely the innovative quality of Nair’s work that the South Asian Student Alliance was looking to celebrate when they invited Nair to speak.
Nair, a native of India, received a scholarship to attend Harvard University at the age of 19. After spending seven years in documentary filmmaking, she directed her debut feature film, “Salaam Bombay!” in 1988. Among her most well-known works are 2001’s “Monsoon Wedding,” one of the top 10 highest grossing foreign films in the United States, and 2004’s adaptation of the novel “Vanity Fair,” which starred Reese Witherspoon.
The “non-Caucasian” project to which she referred is “The Namesake,” one of several films that she has in the works.
Even as an accomplished director, she said she still has difficulty persuading film companies to finance ethnically diverse films.
“If you go against the stream, or create your own, it doesn’t get any easier,” Nair said.
Weinberg senior Vishal Ruparelia, Weinberg senior and social chairman of SASA, said Nair’s work is admired in the Indian community. He said he watched “Monsoon Wedding” with his family and when he told them of Nair’s upcoming visit, they wanted to fly out to be in the audience.
“Indian women are portrayed as being very independent (in ‘Monsoon Wedding’),” Ruparelia said. “Most movies portray Indian women stereotypically — following men, living in patriarchal societies. This is a new side of women, especially of the young generation.”
Nair’s work is unconventional. She mixes actors with non-actors, tragedy with comedy, African-American culture with Indian culture and minimal funding with maximum output.
“I’m not interested in making Sunday afternoon feel-good movies,” Nair said. “I come from the street; I’m interested in the layers of the world. Laughter is greatest when it follows tears.”
Nair said she has learned that doing what she does requires three qualities: bravery, loneliness and stamina. For Communication senior Maham Khan, Nair’s attitude about social and cultural pressures “hit home.”
“There are so many pressures in our culture, and hearing her talk helped me to know that understanding hardship will give me a better mindset to pursue my dreams,” Khan said.
Khan also mentioned that “Monsoon Wedding” was one of the first movies to address molestation, which she said is a huge issue in Indian culture.
“It’s so common but never talked about,” Khan said. “It was very courageous of her to include it in the film.”
Nair views the controversial nature of her work as simply “bringing in all the realities that (she) lives in.”
She left her listeners with the notion that “in order to do something, you must be fully there — you must be a student of life.”
SASA President and Weinberg junior Lakshmi Tummala said she was “ecstatic” with the outcome of the evening.
“It turned out better than we ever expected,” Tummala said.
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