After having seen 'Monsoon wedding' and 'Fire' by Mira Nair, I would rate this movie just above average by her standards and lacks the 'wow' factor which makes Nair's movies interesting. The movie basically revolves around an Indian girl who falls in love with a black guy which is not only acceptable to her family but to entire Indian community living the locality.The story might hold you for the entire length of the movie but does not leave any impact at the end. Performances by Sarita Choudhary and Denzel Washington are very good. Even Rohan Seth has done a great job in acting. Rest of the actors were below par, but I was most disappointed by Sharmila Tagore from whom I had expected a far better performance. A mere one time watch movie!!

I have watched this film over 10 times and i still enjoy watching it. it is a beautiful, romantic yet sad story of a young girl's life changing. she is at first lost in Mississippi but she finds hapinness again in Denzel Washington. I strongly recommend this film to people who may feel lost in new places in the world. As a young lady from Uganda i watch this film and remenisce about my childhood and leaving my home and coming to a new place in the United Kingdom. Mina is the only child therefore she's got no siblings to talk to about how she really feels although she is quite close to her parents. I think there's a sense of loneliness in the film and sadness. However there is also a lot of comedy in the film from Mina's friend's and the romance is beautiful. In the end love conquers all and Mina and Denzel decide to go away together to clean hotels... Aah Aah.

This movie showed one thing that is totally true about many Indians in America (I don't know about England). Many Indians who immigrate to this country start acting and behaving like they are white. Sometimes they forget that they are not even white (I am guilty of that sometimes too, probably even more because I grew up here). Denzel Washington points that out to Roshan Seth very well in this movie. "You are no more than a few shades from my complexion." And then Jammu point out to Anil how he has started to act American (probably means white American), and Anil says, "So what? I'm living in America! You don't like it? Go back to India!" Overall, it's a really good movie. I like it even more than "Monsoon Wedding," and I feel this movie was very underrated. My seventh grade teacher recommended this movie a long time ago (actually a few mos. after I saw it myself.) I myself have been recommending it to some of my non-Indian college friends who have seen Monsoon Wedding.

This is an intimate look at Indians from Africa in America that are just trying to do the best they can and still maintain their values and it was made into a film when the director discovered that many of the motels in the south are owned by Indians. Story is about an Indian family that was ousted from Uganda in the early 70's when Idi Amin started to kick out all Asians. Jay (Roshan Seth) was a lawyer in Africa but had to take his wife Kinnu (Sharmila Tagore) and his young daughter Mina out of the country and would end up in Greenwood, Mississippi. Years later Mina (Sarita Choudhury) who is 24 still lives with her parents who run a motel and they expect her to marry an Indian gentleman. One day Mina is involved in a traffic accident and meets a young black man named Demetrius (Denzel Washington) and after exchanging address's he asks her out on a date. They start to date but keep it secret from her parents until they are caught by fellow Indians.*****SPOILER ALERT*****Demetrius owns a carpet cleaning business and many of his clients are the Indian motel owners and when word spreads of their relationship his business starts to go downhill which puts him in trouble with the bank. Mina loves Demetrius but he is seriously hurt by the reaction of not only the Indians in the community but of her parents.This film was directed by Mira Nair who has added so much to films with her poignant views of Indian culture trying to survive in America and she had made a big impact with her first feature "Salaam Bombay!" and would later make the splendid "Monsoon Wedding". One of the interesting things about this story is that we get to see why this family had to come to America instead of just having the film start with them already in Mississippi. While this is an interesting and provocative script what lies at the core of this film is a simple love story that is relevant to this day. Washington was just emerging as an important actor and he's solid as usual but the film's star is really by newcomer Choudhury. This was her first role and even though at times she appears nervous she turns in a very good performance. It cannot be easy to be in your first film and have nude scenes but she evidently came through alright and shows enough freshness and charm to practically steal the film. Film goes on a tad long and the last 20 minutes seem obvious but this is an intriguing story and Nair is an important director who has again shown her observances of transplanted Indians in America.