Masala And Symbols

3892 Words16 Pages
Masala And Symbols by Kelvin Pang kelvin.pang@live.com.sg Masala And Symbols by Kelvin Pang kelvin.pang@live.com.sg Mississippi Masala On 4th August 1972, General Idi Amin ordered for the expulsion of some 60,000 Asians from Uganda (this was later applied to all 80,000 Asians). It is in this forced exile that Mississippi Masala starts. The movie follows the emigration of Jay Loha, a lawyer, his wife, Kinu, and their daughter, Mina, to Greenwood, Mississippi, via England. The story picks up in 1990, when Mina meets Demetrius, an African American, during an accident. Mina and Demetrius then fall in love, and went to Biloxi for a getaway. There, they were discovered by Anil, a relative of Mina. A brawl ensued, ending with Demetrius and Mina being brought away by the police. In an emotional scene, Mina admitted to Jay and Kinu that she’s in love with Demetrius. Meanwhile, Demetrius’s carpet cleaning company faces financial problems, having lost two deals with the Indian motel owners. We then find that Mina escaped from her ‘confinement’ and went in search of Demetrius. There, she made a bold declaration of her wanting to be with him, and the two decided to elope. The movie ends with Jay, returning to Uganda for his property, and also to look for Okelo, who was already dead. The finale scene depicts Jay surrounded by Ugandan children who were dancing and singing around him. Masala And Symbols by Kelvin Pang kelvin.pang@live.com.sg Postmodernism and Identities Several scholars have argued that we live in the era of Postmodernism. This is characterized by confusion over time and space, emphasis of style over substance and the decline of meta-narratives. Another salient point is the fragmentation of identities. We no longer take on just one fixed identity, but rather several identities that are never permanent labels for
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