Film Response: Mississippi Masala

"Mississippi Masala" is a very good movie that demonstrates the challenges two people faces when trying to be together just because of their racial identities. Both were told to stick to their own race and were seen as traitors for crossing the boundaries. Meena and Demetrius had to endure their families disapproval in order to be together.

Meena and her parents lived in Uganda but were forced to leave after a General took power. They lived in several places and ended up in Mississippi. Meena and her parents were Indian in their traditions and culture, yet born in Uganda, her parents--especially her father-- identified as African. I found it interesting that the family had such strong cultural ties to India, yet they had never lived there. I would think that since they lived in Uganda so long, that they would have incorporated some of the African culture into thier own.In Mississippi, Meena and her family associates with other Indians and they expect Meena to marry within her race. However, when her parents find out that Meena is involved with Demetrius, an African American, they are disappointed.

Meena has dishonored the family and her parents forbid her from being with Demetruis. Demitrius loses his clients after they find out he was involved with an Indian. I thought that it was unfair for the families to judge them and discriminate because they were living in Mississippi where all races, other than white, was inferior. The minority races should be supporting each other, instead they enforce the segregation.

What I found interesting was the fathers dissapproval of Demetrius becuase he was African American. The father identifed as African and insisted that Uganda was his home, yet he discriminated against African Americans. I liked when Demetrius gave him a rude awakening when he told him that he had beome Americanized and saw African Americans as inferior, when he had seen Africa as his home. This brought up how the view of Africans and African Americans is so different. African Americans are seen as infereior because of their social standing within America and how they have had to deal with the ongoing discrimination.

The film demonstrated the transnational relations within these families. The various connections Meena and her family had with different nations. One part that really stood out to me was how Meena's father realized that he was being racially prejudice against Demetrius, just as he had once been in Uganda and had fought and disapproved of.