Trust me when I say that I know I’m about 18 years late on opening any kind of discussion on Mississippi Masala, but I recently saw it for the first time and although it cannot be in any way classed as “Bollywood,” the Indian subject matter magnetized me to it instantly.

Directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair), Mississippi Masala chronicles the story of an Indian family as they struggle to adjust to life in Greenwood Mississippi, after being expelled from their homeland of Uganda by the Ida Amin regime. Father, mother and their daughter Minna (Sarita Choudhoury), stay with family who own a chain of motels called “The Monte Cristo.” At 24-years-old, Minna cleans at the hotel, while her mother runs a liquor store and her father writes endless letters to the Ugandan government in order to regain control of his confiscated house.

As the Fresh Prince of Bel Air would say, Minna’s life gets flipped turned upside down when she falls in love with Demetrius (Denzel Washington), the town’s African-American carpet cleaner. Of course, it becomes impossible for both of their families to accept their inter-racial relationship and so we are caught in a black-Indian or Blindian-if you will- love story that threatens to runs the lives of all parties involved off the tracks.

Mississippi Masala  enlightened a few things for me, mainly that:

a) Denzel Washington was extremely handsome back in the day

b) I love the 90s so much more than I can express in the confines of a blog post

c) I love Minna’s entire wardrobe in this film

d) I had no idea there was an Indian community in Uganda

Besides intriguing love story, authenticity of the characters and  just all around awesome time this was filmed, Mississippi Masala reminded me about something that so many films suffer from today that I can’t stand: too much dialogue.

Characters in films just talk way too much for my liking. So much can be said without saying a word, a concept that Dawnson’s Creek could never master, what with Joey Potter and her SAT- word soaked soliloquies.  A stare, a glance, an embrace, the stroking of hair, the caressing of a cheek and then quite the opposite-tears, distance, blatant ignorance. Mississppi Masala had a lot of this, so much so that it felt like it could actually happen, not that it could happen within the confines of the silver screen.

If your family came to the U.S. as immigrants, this is definitely a film that you will be able to relate to. It still amazes me how my parents picked up and moved to a completely different country – not because they wanted to, but because they had to, because of the Iranian Revolution. Minna’s parents’  financial, economic and social struggles can be echoed all across those that were forced to leave their homelands in order to establish lives in a new environment.

Jammubhai: I’m ashamed of you! I am so ashamed of you!
Anil: [referring to Meena's family] Why do you always take their side? I worked hard for this motel and I am *not* running a charity!
Jammubhai: Anil, you have become American.
Anil: So what? I’m living in America! You don’t like it? Then go back to India!