So Far from India

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So Far from India (1983)

Director: Mira Nair

Length: 52 minutes

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A Still from Minra Nair's So Far from India.

Synopsis

Newly immigrated newsstand worker, Ashok, comes to New York hoping to pave the way for his recently married wife, Hansa, and family. Nair documents Ashok’s assimilation to American life as well as his first visit back to India where tensions at home are high. Meanwhile, in India, Hansa awaits news from Ashok of when she and their son will emigrate and join him in America.

Significance

Mira Nair captures the complexity of the lives of new immigrants. Ashok is just one of many immigrants from India following the American Dream. Nair captures the subtleties and bargaining that occur as one transitions from one way of life to another. Like Nair’s other documentaries, So Far from India does not shy away from the harsh realities of modernity, living between worlds and rejecting societal expectations. Her films break the unspoken rules of polite society that dictate what is appropriate to discuss in public and private spheres. As the second documentary Nair produced, So Far from India gave Nair the courage and experience to produce her first feature film, Salaam Bombay! with co-writer and producer Sooni Taraporevala. Salaam Bombay! launched Mira Nair’s name into the global sphere, winning the coveted Camera D’or and Prix du Public awards at the Cannes Film Festival.

The filmmaker: Mira Nair (b. 1957)

Mira Nair grew up in Bhubaneswar as the youngest of three in a low-income family. From a young age, she exhibited a particular affinity for the arts as she studied sitar, art, and acting. She went on to study sociology at the University of Delhi before she transferred to Harvard the following year to pursue acting on a full scholarship. She eventually switched her focus to study filmmaking. For her final thesis project at Harvard, Nair produced her first documentary, Jama Masjid Street Journal, a film about life in Old Delhi. After undergraduate studies, Nair went on to direct and produce three more documentaries including So Far From India. While each film was successful in its own right, Nair craved more creative control that documentary filmmaking could not offer. In 1983, Sooni Taraporevala and Mira Nair co-wrote and produced Salaam Bombay!, a film starring children from the streets of Bombay telling their stories. The film was an overnight success, winning numerous international awards and nominations from the Cannes Film Festival to the Academy Awards. Nair used the funds raised by this film to create the Salaam Baalak Trust, a non-profit that supports the very same children from Bombay.

Following Salaam Bombay!’s success, Nair went on to produce four more films before producing Monsoon Wedding, one of her highest-grossing films to date. Nair even turned down an offer to direct the fourth movie in the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, choosing instead to direct and produce The Namesake. In addition to her success in independent film, Nair has produced the Hollywood hit, Hysterical Blindness, for HBO starring Uma Thurman. In her work, she remains committed to telling distinctly original stories highlighting all walks of life. In 2012, Mira Nair was honored with the Padma Bhushan Award from the Republic of India. Her films tell a variety of stories from Amelia Earhart’s to chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi’s. Beyond her work as a director, Mira Nair is a mentor to many. She created the Maisha Film Lab in Kampala, Uganda to train the next generation of young directors in East Africa in the art of filmmaking. She continues to participate in the filmmaking community, serving on the Sundance 2024 Film Fest Jury. Currently, she is in the process of producing two new films. The first is AMRI, a film about the life of revered Indian painter Amrita Shergill, and Bro, a film about life and conflict in modern-day India.

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Further reading and listening

 

Entry Author: Chelsea Dongas

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