Rita Banerjee will introduce and lead the discussion for Mira Nair’s 1991 film, Mississippi Masala, staring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury, on June 16, 2026 from 6:15-8:30 pm at the Institute for Indology and Tibetology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, (Ludwigstr. 31, Seminarraum 427). Anyone interested in translation studies, Modern South Asian literature, or art house film is welcome to join the screening.
“Mississippi Masala vividly dramatizes the uncertain, frequently comic progress of the love affair of Mina, a spirited young Indian who has never seen India, and Demetrius, a conscientious, upwardly mobile black American who has never seen Africa. The landscape of Mississippi Masala is brown and black and white. The blacks and whites have been in Greenwood for generations. The browns are newcomers. They are the Indian immigrants who have somehow found their way to Greenwood and, for reasons not entirely clear, have wound up owning most of the motels. The Indian innkeepers are fastidious about their own manners and morals, but they are equally willing to rent rooms by the night, day or hour. It’s recognized as a respectable business. Yet the so-called New South remains a network of social and cultural taboos that almost wreck the lives of Mina and Demetrius.” – Vincent Canby, The New York Times
Rita Banerjee is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and Director, MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
Rita Banerjee 