Nair, Mira

The Namesake

Adapted by screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala from the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, director Mira Nair's The Nameksake is populated by well-drawn characters and filled with memorable shots and engaging scenes. But in the larger sense, the film is a provocative look at the two sides of immigration: the adjustments faced by a couple who move here from a distant land, and the struggles of their offspring to reconcile their parents' traditional culture with their own distinctly American outlook. The tale begins in the late '70s, when aspiring engineer Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan) and his new wife Ashima (the radiant Tabu) move to New York from Calcutta. Life in America is strange, in ways both good (the gas in their apartment stays on 24 hours a day! You can drink water straight from the tap!) and not-so-hot (New York's winters). But for their children, first son Gogol (a standout performance by Kal Penn, heretofore best known for the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle), nicknamed for his father's favorite author, the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol, and then daughter Sonia (Sahira Nair), "the American way" is at odds with their folks' more conservative mores. Gogol (who later adopts his more formal first name, Nikhil) smokes dope, calls his parents "you guys," goes to Yale, and hooks up with a preppie white girl (Jacinda Barrett); for her part, Sonia complains that she wants to "go home" when the family returns to India for a visit. Only when tragedy strikes suddenly does the young man realize how totally alienated from his family he has become, prompting some major changes. There's nothing especially original about any of this, and even those who haven't read the book may sense that some of Lahiri's material has been lost on the way to the screen (the treatment of Gogol's marriage to a beautiful Bengali-American girl, played by Zuleikha Robinson, seems oddly truncated). But even while dealing with life's Big Issues (birth and death, marriage and separation, joy and misery), Nair has created a winning, intimate film that reminds us of the strength of family ties and effortlessly persuades us to care. --Sam Graham

Kal Penn Blogs About The Namesake

Welcome to The Namesake DVD. After touring the festival circuit last year, our film opened globally (including North America) in March of this year, and I'm proud to bring you the DVD!

This is a project that has been close to me from the beginning. I was a big fan of the book ever since John Cho recommended it to me during the first Harold & Kumar shoot. John and I tried to get rights to turn the book into the film, but Mira [Nair, director of Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay] had already acquired them. That began a really aggressive campaign on my part to try to get seen for the role. I'd call Mira's office, have my manager call - but we had no luck in getting in the door. Luckily, unbeknownst to me, Mira's son Zohran and her agent's son Sam were lobbying on my behalf (turns out they are huge Harold and Kumar fans, so they were trying to get their parents to bring me in to read for the part of Gogol). Mira finally agreed, and I got a call saying that I'd be able to audition. I flew out to New York, and luckily things worked out.

There are some similarities between my life and Gogol's. We are both Americans of Indian descent, both born and raised on the East Coast, both bilingual, and both passionate about our careers. But Gogol is much more subdued than I am; he carries a certain silence (which he gets from his father). His place in the world is one of constant shift -- a byproduct of being single in New York, being passionate about his job, close with his family, and so on.

This film is my favorite to -date. Mira has been a role model of mine since I was very young, Jhumpa [Lahiri, author of The Namesake] is one of my favorite authors, Sooni [Taraporevala, screenwriter for Salaam Bombay] one of my most admired screenwriters, so it's an honor to have the chance to be part of the screen adaptation of this story.

To me, it's a very American film. It's about family, about hope - about how we all got here, through the lens of this particular family. With so much negativity every time I turn on the television, I'm proud to be part of something that hopefully leaves the audience with a tremendous amount of hope, and a connection to the people we love. -- Kal Penn

American-born Gogol the son of Indian immigrants wants to fit in among his fellow New Yorkers despite his family's unwillingness to let go of their traditional ways. System Requirements:Running Time: 114 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/AMERICANS ABROAD Rating: PG-13 UPC: 024543456087 Manufacturer No: 2245608

Monsoon Wedding

Monsoon Wedding is a return to form for Mira Nair, director of 1988's Salaam Bombay! Nair's gift for observation of the everyday and her love for her characters make for a delightful film, which spins a web of family relationships that knit and break during a wedding at a perfect pace. The excellent performances exceed the often stereotypical roles on offer (including the incomparable Nasiruddin Shah as the harassed father, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as the comic uncle, and Shefali Chaya as the orphaned cousin). Nair's sympathetic eye for the unnoticed and the harassed is at its best with the tender romance between the servant and Dube (Vijay Raaz), the marigold-munching, upwardly mobile wedding coordinator, who brings pathos and humor to the often unseen servant classes. The handheld camera gives a docudrama feel to this celebratory look at the upper-middle-class Hindu Punjabi joint family, while paying tribute to modern Indian public culture of music, television, and, of course, "Bollywood." --Rachel Dwyer

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love

If you're looking for a deep, intelligently romantic movie with complex characters and a richly rewarding plot, don't bother with Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. On the other hand, if you're feeling sexy and in the mood for a lush, seductive, and visually stunning film set in 16th-century India, this one will please you like the best foreplay you've ever experienced. Or it will relax you like a full treatment at a pampering spa--either way, you're gonna feel pretty fantastic. Okay, okay... maybe we're getting a little carried away, but there's no denying that director Mira Nair (best known for her acclaimed film Salaam Bombay!) has crafted a sumptuous film for the eyes if not the head. Its melodramatic plot is involving enough to elevate the movie high above soft-core adult fare, so you won't feel guilty after watching it.

Kama Sutra is the story of a young woman named Maya (the stunning Indira Varma) who has always been lower on the social scale than her well-born friend Tara (Sarita Choudhury), and has always lived in Tara's shadow, wearing her used clothes and being made to feel inferior. When Tara is betrothed to the handsome King Raj Singh (Naveen Andrews, from The English Patient), Tara sneaks into the king's tent on the eve of the wedding and seduces him. Later, after being trained to master the Kama Sutra's many "lessons of love," Maya will be the king's courtesan, and emotions will run high between the former best friends. But the plot is of secondary importance here (a fact that resulted in many mixed reviews), and so Kama Sutra works best as a colorful and irresistibly sexy story that is worth seeing just for the startling beauty of the film and its cast. --Jeff Shannon

Mississippi Masala

Mira Nair, the Indian director, scored an international art-house hit with her feature debut, Salaam Bombay!, a tale of life in the streets of seething urban India. Her next film was a surprising turnabout: Mississippi Masala is a cultural study and a love story set in the rural American south. The love story comes courtesy of Denzel Washington, as a rug cleaner, and Sarita Choudhury (from Nair's Kama Sutra), as the daughter of Indian immigrants running a small-time motel; both give fresh, charming performances. But Nair is equally interested in capturing the feelings of an exile's life, and Roshan Seth, the fine actor who played Nehru in Gandhi, superbly catches the hope and sorrow of dislocation. Although the issues are serious, Nair maintains a breezy, naturalistic approach, and the various ingredients of this masala blend into a rich, flavorful stew. --Robert Horton

In 1972 an Indian lawyer and his family flee their home as Idi Amin seizes power. The lawyer will never forget the pain and indignity he suffered. Nearly 20 years later the family has settled in Mississippi and the lawyer's adult daughter Mina (Sarita Choudhury) falls in love with a young black business entrepreneur Demetrius (Denzel Washington). Their affair causes a rift in the community and forces the lovers' families to examine their ideas about racial and class differences while avoiding scandal.System Requirements:Running Time: 118 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396010222 Manufacturer No: 01022

Salaam Bombay (Widescreen Special Edition)

Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) adds her angry voice to the cinema of forgotten children in this wrenching drama of an 11-year-old boy (real-life street kid Shafiq Syed) who heads to the big city and joins a sea of homeless kids and down-and-out adults scrambling to survive the pitiless streets. The fantasy of Bollywood dreams hangs just out of reach in posters, movies, and radio tunes, momentary respites from the hard reality of a world ruled by brutal pimps and drug dealers. In the tradition of Los Olvidados and Pixote, former documentarian Nair's feature debut is shot entirely in the slums of Bombay with a largely nonprofessional cast from the same streets. Though the drama is at times misty and melodramatic, her clear-eyed look at the mercenary world around these ultimately fragile forgotten children earned her the Caméra D'Or at Cannes in 1988. --Sean Axmaker

From director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), this "brilliantly achieved, stunning and powerful" (Los Angeles Times) film "burst onto the Indian cinema scene with the force of a tornado" (Time Out London)! Winner of the Caméra d'Or at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival and nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® in 1989, this riveting look at life on the hardened streets of Bombay went on to accumulate accolades and awards across the globe! Forced to leave his family at a very young age, Krishna lives on the streets with pimps, prostitutes, drug addicts and other homeless children. He earns very little money - but it's more than most - delivering tea so he can return home to his family. But his honest plan is foiled when his hard-earned money is stolen by his closest friend, forcing Krishna to follow in the footsteps of so many street children of Bombay…by turning to a life of crime.

Vanity Fair (2004) (Widescreen)

The corsets and high waists of the 19th century meet the lush colors and visual splendor of India in Vanity Fair, a classic novel translated into modern celluloid by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding). The very contemporary Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde, Election) at first seems to hit the wrong note as Becky Sharp, an orphaned girl who rises to the heights of society using her quick wits and feminine wiles. But as Vanity Fair unfolds, the movie's tone embraces both period decor and modern attitudes, searching for a bridge that will carry us more deeply into a different time. It isn't wholly successful--the movie's end wraps things up awkwardly--but some scenes achieve a surprising and vivid immediacy, in particular one in which Becky's gambler husband (elegant James Purefoy) catalogues his worth for her before going off to the Napoleonic battlefields; love and pragmatism fuse with heartbreaking results. --Bret Fetzer

Hysterical Blindness

Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis two of today's most sensational actresses tackle what it was to be single in the 80's in a new movie with a terrific 80's soundtrack. It's 1987 in Bayonne New Jersey. The bars are full and smoky and Debby (Thurman) and Beth (Lewis) are out looking for a good time. Debby is searching for the kind of love they sing about in songs the kind that lasts forever. What she can't see is that most guys are only looking for a love that lasts one night. From Mira Nair director of Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala.Running Time: 96 min.System Requirements:Running Time 99 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 026359189920

Uma Thurman is painful to watch in Hysterical Blindness--and that's a compliment. Thurman completely gives herself over to her trashy character, a pathetically self-deluding good-time girl who hangs out in a tavern in Bayonne, New Jersey, circa 1987. She occupies the bar stool next to her best bud (a dead-on Juliette Lewis), willing herself to believe that an obviously indifferent pick-up is Mr. Right. Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) directed this familiar but nicely-rendered HBO production; her visual style, full of obscured sightlines and opaque glass, emphasizes the heroine's inability to see clearly. Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara, as Thurman's mom and her gentleman suitor, add an echo of Cassavetes realism. But it's Thurman's tour de force, capturing the kind of lost soul whose idea of first-date chat is to break an awkward silence by boasting about her best sexual skill. She will make you cringe. --Robert Horton

Full Frame Documentary Shorts, Vol. 1

An often-stirring selection of seven documentary shorts culled from the annual Full Frame Documentary film festival, this DVD provides a healthy cross-section of the nonfiction form. "Short" is something of a misnomer; except for the nifty 2-minute Lucy Tsak Tsak, these pieces tend toward the half-hour running time. Standouts include We Got Us, a warm look at four elderly ladies who share a mah-jongg game every week, and the oddly haunting Mojave Mirage, about a telephone booth in the middle of the desert that became a cult tourist destination (its number ringing constantly, from curious callers around the world). Director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) contributes the utterly delightful Laughing Club of India, a look at a growing phenomenon: people who gather in groups to laugh themselves silly, like a yoga class with guffaws. It sounds crazy, and might be, but it will bring a smile to your face. --Robert Horton

LAUGHING CLUB OF INDIA (By Mira Nair) From Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), this humorous documentary explores the power of laughter through the strangely popular phenomenon of laughing clubs in contemporary Bombay. (30min)

The Perez Family

Love blossoms in the most unexpected of places in this sparkling sexy romantic comedy about freedom friendship and the true meaning of family. Starring Marisa Tomei Alfred Molina Chazz Palminteri and Anjelica Huston The Perez Family is a buoyant colorful [and] optimistic celebration of the immigrant experience (The Washington Post) in America in the early 1980s. Free-spirited Dottie Perez (Tomei) is leaving Cuba for America her head filled with dreams of movies mascara and dates with John Wayne. Straight-laced Juan Perez (Molina) is headed for a reunion with the wife (Huston) and daughter (Trini Alvarado) he hasn t seen in 20 years. But when an overworked immigration official mistakes Dottie and Juan for husband and wife the stage is set for a marital mix-up and some very unpredictable romances!System Requirements:Running Time: 113 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 027616884497 Manufacturer No: 1004369

Marisa Tomei releases her inner spitfire in The Perez Family. Dottie Perez (Tomei) comes to the U.S. from Cuba, along with a mixed lot of criminals, lunatics, and political prisoners--including Juan Perez (Alfred Molina), who hopes to be reunited with his wife after 20 years. To work around the bureaucratic politics of the refugee camps, Dottie persuades Juan to pretend that they're married, and drafts a few other Perezes to create a family. Meanwhile, Juan's wife Carmella believes that Juan never arrived and is finally letting go of his memory, helped by the attentions of a Miami police detective (Chazz Palmintieri). Tomei's sexy passion sometimes spills over into silliness and the story unfolds erratically, but the examination of how love grows and how love fades is sincere and affecting. The actors are charismatic, the music's fantastic, and Tomei wears many skimpy outfits. Directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding). --Bret Fetzer

September 11

Eleven acclaimed directors each make an 11 minute short film in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, bringing their unique points of view and distinct voices to confront this climatic event. The result is a daring and moving global cinematic reply that "forces us to look at the entire event afresh." (The New York Times)

Featuring Films by:

Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel)
Mira Nair (Vanity Fair)
Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes the Barley)
Sean Penn (Into the Wild)
Shohei Imamura (The Eel)
Samira Makhmalbaf (Blackboards)
Claude Lelouch (A Man and a Woman)
Youssef Chahine (Alexandria...New York)
Amos Gitai (Kippur)
Idrissa Ouedraogo (Yaaba)
Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land)