Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 66

This section is recyclable Friday, February 28, 1992 Austin American-Statesman 5 tyiflSiyiFes SOU b.fsu -T it's- Movie explores nuances interracial relationship tp5ff, v- i -y Tico Wells, left, Sarita Choudhury, Charles Dutton and Denzel Washington star in Mississippi Masala, an interracial romance. Film review Mississippi Masala si 1LJ By Michael MacCambridge American-Statesman Staff rom Guess Who's Coming fl to Dinner? to Jungle Fe-" ver, the American cinema i has historically defined in-J terracial relationships in terms of black and white. But the treatment has frequently been oversimplified, because interracial romances involve more than just a mixing of skin colors. Often there exists very real and formidable cultural differences between lovers and especially their families. Mississippi Masala is about those deeper schisms.

The new film from In sp Washington, left, and Choudhury struggle through race and cultural differences. Above, Sharmila Tagore, left, and Roshan Seth are forced to flee their Uganda home. dian director Mira Nair (whose Salaam Bombay received an Oscar nomination for best foreign film), comes as a refreshingly complex vision of the elemental struggle between races and cultures. Stars: Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury Director Mira Nair MPAA rating: Theaters: Village Critic's rating: are shamed before their relatives. In Demetrius' case, the incident goes on his police record, forces him to lose business in town and prompts his bank to call in a loan on him.

It's against these recriminations that the two young people must decide, individually, what to do with their lives. While some of the subplots meander, Nair does a good job at sustaining the key ones. The film, though, ultimately rises less on its screenplay than on the strength of the powerful presence of Washington and the sensual Choudhury. A scene in which the pair are languorously talking to one another on the phone fairly sizzles with sexual tension. There are some strong supporting roles.

Charles S. Dutton (television's Roc) is funny as Demetrius' on-the-make buddy and Joe Seneca turns in a memorable performance as Demetrius' father. The best supporting role, though, might come from Seth, whose Jay is dogged by haunted images of the past, an anger too deep to even begin to speak about, and a palpable dread of the future. In many ways, it is through him that the larger resonances of Mississippi Masala show themselves. Rising levels of nativism and xenophobia are being experienced around the world.

Mississippi Masala reminds us why people can't "keep with their own," as Mina's mother balefully wishes at one point. It won't work, because sooner or later, their sons and daughters will mix and those relationships will force people to face their biases. ifl Nair The story her mental acquisitiveness a facility for crossing boundaries, transcending cultural differences. Demetrius is intrigued by Mina's combination of forthright intelligence and the undercurrent of resignation. She also has an undeniably exotic air, as an Indian born in Uganda, raised in England and in so many ways thoroughly American.

He senses in her a gravity that his ex, pursuing a singing career, definitely lacked. The couple decide to take a weekend in Biloxi, with Mina lying to her parents about going swimming with a female friend. But when her relatives, relaxing at the beach, spot her, all hell breaks loose, prompting an altercation that leads to the police being called. Where Sooni Taraporevala's screenplay works best is showing the fallout of each family's discovery of this interracial romance. Both Demetrius and Mina would be, in the words of your standard, politically correct, white American, "people of color." But that small difference in skin tone is merely a cover for much larger cultural differences between the two willful families.

Mina's parents, angling for a proper husband, the past. He continues devoting all his energies to reclaiming his property and assets from the land he left 18 years earlier. Hours before the wedding of motel-owner Anil (Ranjit Chowdhry), Mina has an accident while driving his car. The man whose van she hits is a carpet-cleaner named Demetrius (Denzel Washington), a handsome, strapping young Greenwood native who declined a chance to go to college to work in his aging father's business. Later that night, the two run into each other again, this time with more pleasant results, at a dance club.

Without giving it much thought, Demetrius asks Mina to dance, partly as a defense against an ex-girlfriend who seems to have showed up to make him jealous. But the two share an attraction beyond their physical appeal. Mina, whose sensibilities are largely American, is glad to find a suitor unlike the strait-laced, joyless, but very wealthy Harry Patel (Ashok Lath), the man her parents wish she would wed. She describes herself as a "masala," an Indian term for a combination of hot and multi-colored spices. One senses in begins in Uganda in 1972, and focuses on an Indian family of three.

Jay (Ro-shan Seth), born and raised in the country, is a lawyer who specializes in defending blacks unjustly accused of crimes. But when Idi Amin takes power in 1971, Jay and his family are swept up in the rising tide of violence and bias that led to the expulsion of 80,000 Asian Ugandans. When the film picks up again, it's 1990 and Jay's family has relocated to Greenwood, a small city in Mississippi. His wife Kinnu (Sharmila Tagore) now manages a liquor store, his daughter Mina (Sarita Choudhury) works as a cleaning woman in the same motel which the extended family of Indians manages and lives in. Jay still lives in.