Zohran Mamdani, who could become the first Muslim mayor of New York City, has esteemed Hollywood pedigree; his mother is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker who worked with a string of A-listers, including Academy Award winners Denzel Washington, Reese Witherspoon and Lupita Nyong’o.
Mira Nair made history of her own when she won the prestigious Camera d’Or at Cannes in 1988 for “Salaam Bombay!” With the debut feature, she became the first Indian filmmaker to achieve such status. The acclaimed work, about the lives of children living in slums in the city now known as Mumbai, also garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1989.
Her 1991 American breakthrough, “Mississippi Masala,” was a cross-cultural romance movie that starred Denzel Washington in his first romantic role. The burgeoning heartthrob starred opposite Sarita Choudhury — currently in the “Sex and the City” spinoff “And Just Like That…” in the interracial romance set in Uganda during the reign of controversial dictator Idi Amin.
Nair also directed Witherspoon in the 2004 Victorian-era England historical drama “Vanity Fair” based on William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1849 novel.
Her credits include 2006’s “The Namesake” based on Jhumpa Lahiri, Disney’s “Queen of Katwe” starring Oscar winner N’yongo and the BAFTA-winning comedy “Monsoon Wedding,” which also won the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival.
Mamdani is Nair’s only child with husband, writer and political scientist Mahmood Mamdani. The two met when she was in Uganda doing research for “Mississippi Masala.”
The Bowdoin College-educated, New York State assemblymember has had an influence in his mother’s work — he is credited with convincing her to pass on the opportunity to direct “Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix,” which came out in 2007.
“He said to me, ‘Mamma, many good directors can make Harry Potter, but only you can make ‘The Namesake,’” she recalled about the 14-year-old in a 2018 interview. “And it was such a liberating and clarifying statement, and it kind of is about how I lived my life. Like, what can I do that is so specific that you cannot do? How to make my distinctiveness my calling card.”
As far as his career, the proud mother has been just as supportive.
“Eid Mubarak to all who love humanity. All New York wallahs, listen to this mama: If you want a progressive mayor, remember to vote for our son @zohrankmamdani!,” Nair, 67, wrote in a post on her social media ahead of the mayoral primary.
The 33-year-old media savvy socialist stunned the political world when his win over former New York governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary Tuesday.
