Mississippi Masala is a romance comedy-drama film directed by
Mira Nair, based upon a screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala, starring Denzel Washington, Sharmila Tagore, and Roshan Seth. The film explores interracial romance between African-Americans and Indian-Americans in the United States, and takes place in Mississippi.
It was released in the U.S. on 5 February 1992, after being released in France on 18 September 1991 and in the United Kingdom on 17 January 1992. The film grossed $85 million at the box office.
Plot
A third-generation Indian-Ugandan family residing in Kampala, is expelled from the country in 1972 by the Idi Amin regime. The father, Jay (Roshan Seth) moves with wife, Kinnu (Sharmila Tagore) and daughter, Mina (Sarita Choudhury) to Greenwood, Mississippi to live with family members who own a chain of motels there.
In 1990, 24-year-old Mina, who cleans at Anil's (Ranjit Chowdhry) family's motel (the Monte Cristo), falls in love with Demetrius (Denzel Washington), a local African American carpet cleaner. The respective families erupt in turmoil after the pair are confronted by members of the Indian family during a weekend of pleasure in Biloxi.
Ultimately, the two families cannot come to terms with the inter-racial pair, who flee together in Demetrius' van. Both families need to move on, both emotionally and physically, in order to grow. Jay also needs to change. After a brief return to Kampala to attend a court proceeding on the disposition of his confiscated Ugandan house, Jay relinquishes his long-nurtured dream of returning to Uganda, the place he considered home.