Image and Composition in "Mississippi Masala"

In order to portray the conflicts of ethnicity, race, and personal identity in the film Mississippi Masala, director Mira Nair used a lot of contrasting images and compositional decisions that showed the internal struggle felt by the characters. The scenes set in Africa are characterized by wide shots of the Ugandan landscape with the view of the green hills from the backyard of the main character, Mina’s, childhood home. These scenes are also easily identified by the muted earth tones of the wardrobe and indoor sets. In one of the tensest scenes during this part of the film, Mina’s father, who is of Indian descent, is confronted by a good friend of his who tells him that he must leave because Indians were being targeted by Idi Amin’s regime. Nair used hard lighting in order to create a dark and ominous mood in this scene. The two principal characters of the scene are also shot in close up in order to make the moment even more tense.

Once Mina’s family immigrates to the United States, the film is characterized more by the colorful images and the camera’s focus more on the characters than on the landscapes of Mississippi. Nair also focuses on the Indian culture of Mina’s family. To set the romantic mood of the first time that Mina and her black boyfriend, Demetrius’s first kiss set in the Mississippi Bayou, Nair used soft lighting and a slow tracking shot. The two lovers are featured prominently in the center of the screen in order to focus all of the attention on them. The romantic mood is in stark contrast because it is one of the few moments that breaks the tension of the racial and ethnic issues that’s at the root of this film.