Sound And Vision: Mira Nair
In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we discuss Young Cardamom & HAB's #1 Spice directed by Mira Nair.
This entry of Sound and Vision will win you trivia rounds in very specific film themed pub quizes. It is an amalgam of fun facts that starts with the current mayor of New York. Zohran Mamdani is young, hip and a person who connects to the normal, everyday New Yorker.
Fun fact number 1: You might have heard he was a rapper under the moniker Young Cardamom before he became a mayor. But did you also know he had a song in a Disney live-action production? Queen of Katwe is a film about a chess prodigy in Uganda, and Mamdani, who is Indian-Ugandan, made a song for the soundtrack called #1 Spice.. Fun fact number 2: Mamdani was also the music supervisor of that film, and made a cameo.
So how did a young up and coming rapper bag such a big gig? Fun fact number 3: Mamdani is the son of famed Indian-American director Mira Nair, who directed Queen of Katwe. I do not necessarily ascribe to the stern school of Social Media that is against nepo babies, but I think we could describe this as a form of nepotism. Even if I do not believe that to be automatically a bad thing.
Fun fact number 4: the sole music video Mira Nair directed was for the song #1 Spice.. The tie in music video to her own Queen of Katwe is surprisingly more stylized and colorful in its costuming and composition then the film proper. Fun touches like the bootleg copy style opening credits of the music video are sorely missing in the film itself, and the same goes for the magical-realist touches.
The film itself is a rags-to-success story, that displaces the American Dream and applies it to an Ugandan setting, underlining the central belief that runs through a lot of Mira Nair's films that if you apply yourself hard enough, you might get rewarded. Mamdani in his campaign, and Mira Nair alike in films like Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay, do point out that the playing field is not level, being extra hard for people of color, black people, and mixed-race people not only in America, but all over the world. The films and Mamdani did not say you WILL be rewarded, as they ain't preaching a prosperity gospel. But they do point out that you won't get anywhere without hard work, which has been the story for immigrants especially, who are expected to work harder and get more barriers to success than non-minorities.
Which is why I find it reductive to be angry about nepotism in Mamdani's case: he would not get where he was if people did not like his message and his hard work. It is not like the name Mira Nair is recognizable to the common man, regardless how good her films might be. I do not think New Yorkers are all major cinephiles. They do not give a shit about Mamdani getting a gig as music supervisor for a Disney chess flick, they care about the rising rent and how to afford food and provide safety for their family. Mamdani provides hope. He might use a different platform than his mother but the message is the same: the world is hard, but we can all work harder so it will become a better place. It is hopeful if you look at it from the right angle.
