Mira Nair has worked internationally bringing Indian actors and themes around the world. Her films are all about class and culture - things that are important in and out of Indian society - as she tends to focus on the lives of female characters. Let's celebrate her work for today's Female Filmmakers series.
Her most critically acclaimed film is Monsoon Wedding which does not have any nudity despite having a lot of sexual themes. But don't let that stop you from getting interested in Mira Nair movies. She has not been shy about sex and nudity in her films and we are going to talk about that right here today. Mira Nair has worked a lot with Sarita Choudhury who seems to be her muse. It's not hard to see why Sarita would be her muse: Sarita is smoking hot. She's also absolutely talented and has no problem doing full-frontal nudity.
Mira was born and raised in India, but she went to America to attend Harvard University. Ever heard of it?! So, yes, she's a brainy one. She began her filmmaking career in documentaries before makes her feature debut with Salaam Bombay! in 1988 which was instantly well-received. It was even nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign feature. There was no nudity in the movie, but she was able to use this success to jump into the films that have gathered us here today.
The 1991 film Mississippi Masala celebrated a love affair between Sarita Choudhury, an Indian woman in the American South, and a Black man in Mississippi played by Denzel Washington. Their families are not thrilled about this and their cultures really clash, but their love is strong.
She directed the 1996 film Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. Sarita Choudhury and Indira Varma are the stars of this highly sexual film. Well, duh! You can't name your film "Kama Sutra" without showing a lot of sex and nudity. Mira Nair's movie does not fail us on that front.
Sarita and Indira even explore each other's bodies in the buff and also have sex scenes with men. There is just so much sex and nudity in this delicious film that is definitely worth your time if you love Bollywood babes.
Monsoon Wedding's success gave her a lot of Hollywood opportunities. She directed both Hysterical Blindness with Uma Thurman and the lavish 2004 film Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon. Vanity Fair may not be a well-remembered movie today, but it makes perfect sense that Mira directed this film. Mira Nair was able to show off her use of vibrant color in a totally new way as she brought this old novel to life.
She went back to her roots with the 2006 film The Namesake which tells the story of a young man in New York City juggling his Indian culture with the western world. Fun fact: she was offered to direct a Harry Potter film, but turned it down to do this one. She loves passion projects!
This is a very long film that is an adaptation of a popular novel about an Indian man who has been very westernized as he navigates his way through love and life. Oh, plus he juggles Indian hottie Zuleikha Robinson who undresses and rolls around in bed with him.
Shockingly, she took an early 90s departure from Indian stories to direct the tender immigration drama The Perez Family about a Cuban family in the US. Now, I know she wouldn't make this mistake when telling Indian stories, but she didn't end up using Latina actresses to play the Cubans in the movie.
It was the 90s, so I'll give her the pass for that, but it would have been extra hot to showcase Cuban actresses in this story. Instead, Marisa Tomei and Anjelica Huston play Cuban refugees in the US who show some skin.
Her most recent work was in the 2020 BBC mini-series A Suitable Boy that takes place in 1947 when India regained independence from Britain. In this film, we follow the story of the Mehra family. It's easy to follow with Shahana Goswami playing Meenakshi Mehra, the 19-year-old daughter who is going to have an arranged marriage but is also living her best college life. That means she gets naked!
Mira Nair has clearly proven herself as a stellar filmmaker and her style is pretty clear. Her characters are usually female, her colors are rich, and her stories explore culture and class clashes. She has given us brilliant work and I definitely hope she continues to bring us South Asian sexpots to salivate over.
Watch this Kama Sutra scene and you will feel the exact same way:
