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Mira Nair’s son is the NYC Mayor
During one of the final trips, my Ambulu Paati stayed with me back in 2017, and I took her to see director Mira Nair’s musical theater adaptation of “Monsoon Wedding” in Berkeley.
Afraid we’d be late with bridge traffic, I made us leave my apartment ridiculously early. We got to Berkeley well before the show, eating Viks Chaat and later ending up at a coffee shop near the theater to play Scrabble on my iPhone to kill time before the show (of course, she beat my score).
I had been so excited, I had bought loge box seats for us. But once we got to the theater, it was a combination of horror and hilarity: Paati was too short to see the stage clearly over the high railing. Fortunately, a young couple seated nearby noticed and kindly traded better spots with us.
Paati loved the musical performance — and so did I. It was a beautiful stage adaptation of the film, full of color, authenticity and Nair’s unique diasporic storytelling signature.
I can’t help but still think of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as Mira Nair’s son more than anyone else. Like: Mira Nair’s son is mayor. Oh, look at his legendary mom behind him on TV! Oh my god, is Mira Nair going to say something?
Nair has long been my favorite movie director — a rare combination of talented filmmaker and diasporic storyteller. As a kid, when I felt represented by neither Hollywood nor Bollywood, Nair was a unicorn — alongside other transnational pioneers like Deepa Mehta and Gurinder Chadha — telling stories of people in the South Asian diaspora living within multiple cultures. For years, through college and grad school, I regularly cold-emailed Nair’s production company, Mirabai Films, soliciting an internship. (Alas, Mamdani got an internship-like cameo, instead.)
While Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, lead headlines for obvious newsworthiness, politics aside, I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about the genius of Nair’s pioneering career. (I’ve calmed myself that it’s likely Zohran having his dad’s last name instead of his mom’s that makes the Mira Nair association far less obvious.) Her movies have cast everyone from Denzel Washington and Kate Hudson to Riz Ahmed, Kal Penn, Irrfan Khan and Tabu. Nair’s “Salaam Bombay!” was nominated for an Oscar in 1989.
Over the winter holidays, I rewatched some of Nair’s works, and their timeless stories of immigration, race, family, and relationships hold up. Some of my favorites have included:
Mississippi Masala (1991): A landmark portrayal of Brown-Black interracial love, migration, refugees, and race in the American South.
Monsoon Wedding (2001): A beautiful portrait showing the complexity of family and relationships. While it’s centered around a wedding, to me, the most powerful aspect was its important depiction of how sexual abuse can happen within families — and the ensuing accountability.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012): Based on author Mohsin Hamid’s novel, an intense account on being a Brown person — namely a Pakistani — in post-9/11 America.
The Namesake (2006): Nair’s on-screen take of author Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel of the same name (my all-time favorite book) about a first- and second-generation Indian American family coming to terms with immigration, identity, and one’s namesake.
On Jan. 1 of this year, as Mamdani made history, inaugurated as NYC’s first mayor of Muslim and South Asian descent, Nair was busy taking photos of her son — like any proud parent.
Little did some Americans or New Yorkers perhaps realize the sheer talent behind that smartphone camera.
This article was first published in redwhiteandbrown.com