To me, this movie is perfection.

Best movie ever!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Mississippi Masala is a little bit difficult to rate. It's a bit dated now, but still has enough going for it that it is fairly good film. (spoilers) Between the 2 stories, the main love affair and secondary moving away from home and memories, I found the Uganda foundation story with memories to be quite good and absorbing, while the love interest poorly written and conceived. The movie does pretty well until it tries to conjure up conflict based on racial friction - this is where the dialog starts to break down. Dialog starts to include subjects like "you people" and other generalizations. The characters especially Demetrius and Mina lack what should be clarity to cut through the tension - and that's the problem. It's too contrived. I thought the acting was mostly good. You can tell it's Choudhury's first big movie or part. Roshan Seth commands all the scenes he's in. The ending was well done, and the secondary plot magnificently completed. It's enough to encourage watching the movie just for that part of it

In the early 20th century, the English government moved several people from India to Uganda to build the railroad. Some of the Indians stayed and became lawyers, physicians, etc. When Idi Amin came to power in the early 1970s, he expelled all non-black Africans. Some of the Indians moved to Mississippi and began running motels."Mississippi Masala" focuses on this. Mina (Sarita Choudhury) is the daughter of an Indian family who fled Uganda for Mississippi. She develops a relationship with Demetrius (Denzel Washington), a local man. Her family does not approve of her dating a black man, and Demetrius' friends don't like him dating an Indian woman.The movie shows many things, in particular how both the blacks and the Indians were displaced from their ancestral lands. Also, it shows how the blacks are racist towards the Indians and vice versa. As Demetrius reminds Mina's father: "Your skin is just a couple of shades from mine." Regardless of whether or not these sorts of things happen a lot, the movie does a very good job with it all.

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.

As an Indian residing in another country, the story pulled some familiar strings in me. The movie wonderfully captures and eloquently describes the battles fought by an immigrant or a foreign resident. The racism, prejudice, exposed to, and how a confused citizen - between cultures - tries to adjust is well brought out. A gripping story, dispassionately told. While passionate love stories between two diverse cultures, are not altogether new, the way the director keeps us attentive is very impressive. Kampala to London to Mississippi. Childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Passion to Patriotism to Prejudice. Devotion to dilemma to disregard. Excellent!