mira nair seems about the right person to take on vanity fair. reese witherspoon, though? i'm not sure. gabriel byrne is perfectly nasty and what more can possibly be said about bob hoskins or jim broadbent? but reese witherspoon? i tried to like her, i really did. i'm just not a big fan of her style. the film is well shot and there are plenty of lovely scenes, but i didn't feel great about it in the end. i also didn't feel bad about it. kind of indifferent, really.

monsoon wedding, however, is more my style. after attending a muslim wedding in derby this summer we naturally watched nair's earlier effort as soon as we were back hanging out in london. it's a fantastic film, dealing with serious and difficult subject matter with skill without losing the overall exuberance of the characters and plot. vijay raaz, who plays the flower-eating, cellphone-toting p.k. dubey, is brilliant. on the top of my dream list of actors i would want to cast in one of my films. he has the most incredible face, filled with anguish and determination. monsoon wedding has a top-notch cast all around (like roshan seth, also memorable as nehru in attenborough's gandhi).

when i think of mira nair, though, the first film that comes to mind is salaam bombay!. a tremendous film. krishna (shafiq syed) and chillum (raghuvir yadav) show us what acting is all about. many of the children in it grew up and haven't been in another movie. shafiq syed, for instance, has the following bio note in the imdb: " Is currently (2004) living in Bangalore with his family where he repairs auto-rickshaws."

nair really made something special by enlisting real street kids as actors. they give the film its authenticity and intensity, and make it unforgettable.

i can't think of this film without hearing "chaipau!"