She has taken to introducing herself this way: "I'm Mira Nair. Rhymes with fire." The director of acclaimed independent films like Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding offers the mnemonic to help people pronounce her name. But it could also be a warning. Nair is fiercely passionate about everything, especially the way she makes her movies.
The best of her films have been authentic depictions of the Indian diaspora, small in scope and locale but with themes universal enough to have generated a warm and lucrative Western following. Monsoon Wedding, which cost just over a million dollars, earned almost...