If you think Mira Nair is overrated, I shudder to what you think of hacks like Gurinder Chadha or Deepa Mehta...

And City of Joy is a completely fabricated and imagined view of India; the standard white man "finding himself in a foreign land" discourse we find everwhere.[/quote

I am not talking about story here, I am talking about film making/direction, story telling is far superior!

Chadha , just got lucky with BILB, Mehta, shows occasional sparks.

Mira Nair's Vanity fair I watched after namesake and even good period feel, I did not quiet like it.

BTW I did love the remake PRIDE N PREJUDICE though with Keira Knightly

I dunno arsh; like DC said, "to each his own." I believe Nair is one of the most interesting directors working today (up there with Almodovar, Haynes, Van Sant, and von Trier for moi); she doesn't always hit it out of the park, but even her failures are fascinating, and she is a strong visualist. And her last three films IMO have been extraordinary - any filmmaker should hope to have a run that good.



Many people don't like this movie very much, but I think it's a valid contribution to the postcolonial narrative. By re-inserting the story of colonialism alongside the British literary epic, Nair renders visible the concurrent historical accounts. Too often, the histories are separated, and the Industrial era in England and the time of the British raj in South Asia are seen in their own respective temporal spaces (in vacuums.) I think Vanity Fair is really quite subversive in this regard, and I should probably write an article one day.

It's a lot of fun too...

Interesting!! I agree!! Visualist!! yes! I agree!! But seems that she tries to too much at times indulge into INDIAN VISUALIZATION! as I thought that entire INDIA stuff in VF was unasked for!! Whether it was that INDIAN FEST in ENGLAND, RS's INDULGENCE in CHILLIES and captains TRIP and FIGHT/DUAL in RAJHASTHAN and In the END, MANGAL PANDEY style, GALORE HATHI MELA RIDE! was just for visual appeal, I must say!

But any how , now I have seen VF! I cant wait to see your article on that.

Mira Nair's best films by far are her 'Indian' films - Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding and partially The Namesake. I won't count Kama sutra because although set in India, it had a British cast, was spoken in English with bad Indian accent and totally pandered to a western audience.

I really couldn't stand how she pushed her Indian culture in Vanity fair, because it really wasn't needed. The critics noticed this and did mention the fact that it was unnecessary. One awaits to see how Shantaram will turn out.

As for Gurinder Chadha BILB was good, Bride was horrible! I did like her American film What's cooking? which didn't have a single Indian character. But I am NOT looking forward to her remake of the Korean movie "My Sassy girl".

With Deepa Mehta I think she is a little overrated. It seems she has just gotten popular with the controversial subject matter with her trilogy of films set in India, most of which I think miss the mark, apart from Water which was quite good. Let's not forget she made the totally forgetable Bollywood/Hollywood where most of the jokes just fell flat.

All three of these female directors make fims that could go either way. Maybe they are being experimental but I think they should stick with they type of films that work for them.

I think, you hit the nail, right on the head!! I think, Nair had been defying her status as an INTERNATIONAL director!

If she would have made VF like BAP it would be good film. Well, I hope in shantaram she does not resort to take AB orchestrated instructions and keep him under her baton and not add any item numbers in there to feed masses!

Chadha proved her crap with Balle Balle

That's news to me. Do you have a source?

I am looking forward to your input miyan! after you are through with NAMESAKE in MAY

Somehow, what could be a delightful, family trip for Desi families too, Nair ended up making it for adults only, niche audience.

Indeed. It will be releasing in The Netherlands on 10 May.

The authour of the original text, William Makepeace Thackery, was born in colonial India - it's not like she inserted all of these elements to lamely affirm her identity politics. All along, you can see how she tries to make connections between the class hierarchy and caste system, and how the wealth and privilege flaunted by Becky's peers is built on the plunder of India's treasures and the exploitation of its people. And all the superficial "performances" of Indian culture (the Orientalist dance, the dream-like sequence at the end) affirms how the British view India - an exotic paradise full of promise and mystery. Like I said before, other films set in this era completely write off the history of liberalism and empire - Nair wants to draw it out and make the transculturation visible. The sly commentary is brilliant in my eyes.

I don't understand why people think she was just playing the "culture" card just to trump up the film. The evidence is all up there on screen.

And critics are stupid.

I didn't know that, sounds good. It just didn't look good at the time. Maybe as she was riding on the success of Monsoon Wedding it looked like she was promoting her "Indianness". I didn't like Reese Witherspoon in the title role and that dance scene looked too "bollywood" for me, to be taken seriously. So the original novel of Vanity Fair was partially set in India?

Anwar, regarding My Sassy Girl, although Gurinder was supposedly 'finalised' as the director of the US Remake, she's no longer doing it, I'm glad to say. It's now being directed by an unknown director - Yann Samuell, who made one film so far - a french film that was quite good. So maybe he'll do a good job with the remake.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404254/

But I think the Korean version of My Sassy Girl was good enough for international audiences it doesn't need a remake, it just needs to be released in the west!

darn!! dont remind me that item number, lol. I some how not very found of her either, she kinda does no gell, well with victorian britian!!

Monsoon Wedding is a great film and an all time classic, atleast in my opinion it is. I have not seen 'Namesake' yet and I found Kama Sutra to be trash, Vanity Fair below average, but even then, just based on 'Monsoon Wedding' I feel that, 'overrated' is definately a word that does not apply to Mira Nair. I have seen 'Monsoon Wedding' umpteen times and each time I like the film even more.

Monsoon Wedding was great. One of the best non-bollywood films of India. If you haven't seen Salaam Bombay you should check it out, too.

so, you think, she is rightfuly rated with 1/4 decent films only

I agree this film doesn't need a remake because its already liked by people over the whole world, despite the film not being released worldwide. I loved the film!

I feel the exact same way about Monsoon Wedding.