 "How mom Mira Nair’s films were a formative influence in Zohran Mamdani's life?")
Zohran Mamdani is an Indian-born Ugandan scholar. His mom, Mira Nair, a renowned Indian-origin filmmaker played a very important role in forming his ideas of life. Though aa a kid he hated the idea of his mother leaving for months for cinema.
According to a story published in the Hollywood Reporter, Mira Nair said, “Usually he doesn’t like me being away.” He never encouraged his mother to do romcoms.
How his mother ’s films played an important role in his life?
The The Reluctant Fundamentalist, based on Mohsin Hamid’s novel influenced him a lot, The movie has Riz Ahmed playing a Pakistani immigrant to the U.S. who succeeds on Wall Street but then is targeted and arrested after 9/11 despite clearly having done nothing wrong. He then returns to his home country where he is eventually suspected by the CIA of kidnapping an American tourist — an act whose truth the movie leaves ambiguous.
Mamdani’s early life
Born on October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda, Mamdani is the son of Indian-origin parents, renowned filmmaker Mira Nair and academic Mahmood Mamdani, an Indian-born Ugandan scholar.
According to reports, Mamdani spent his early childhood in Cape Town, South Africa, attending St. George’s Grammar School, before moving to New York City at the age of seven.
He later graduated from the Bank Street School for Children and the Bronx High School of Science. In 2014, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies from Bowdoin College.
(With inputs from agencies)