The Wild Girl

I was seen as an outsider in the beginning and then an object of great envy. All the national directors wanted to be international' Mira Nair Mira Nair was born the only girl in a family of boys in a traditional middle-class family in India. In this idiosyncratic memoir, she tells of the unusual obstacles she has overcome on her road to prize-winning filmmaker and global role model. Typically humane and visionary, the originality of her films has always made a mark, but not until 'Monsoon Wedding' did she crack the Western market, with an all-singing-all-dancing colourful India that became so beloved of the West. But she has always embraced the darker side, too, and in this personal story, she tells how her parents' divorce and her own broken first marriage have influenced her imagination. Mira Nair's style is always one of a mother - rather than of a boss - both to her own son, and to all those film crews who work with her. Here, in the most modest terms, she explores interracial and filial love, and expresses not only her cinematic vision, but also her own personal ideas of how to attain emotional and professional fulfilment in all cultures.