Miss India Georgia offers portraits of four first-generation Asian American contestants in Atlanta’s annual South Asian beauty pageant.  While these young women hold widely differing religious beliefs and family values, all are caught between pressure to preserve their family’s traditions and a desire to Americanize in the predominantly white suburban South.  Nisha, called Sabrina by her non-Indian friends, is Muslim and expresses a desire to uphold her family’s customs.  Anu feels alienated in her community of established white Southern families and worships at a Hindu temple alongside her parents, but she is also eager to explore American youth culture.  Misty, whose family comes from Trinidad and is a born-again Christian, has not found acceptance in either the Indian or white communities.  Mini is most attracted to the American way of life and frequently clashes with her mother.  As each girl struggles to find her own balance, the beauty pageant becomes a means both to explore their heritage and to assimilate into the American way of life.

See also: http://home.earthlink.net/~dfriedman1/migdescrp.html


Amitabha Bagchi, "Miss India Georgia," Sawnet Film Review.
http://www.sawnet.org/cinema/reviews.php?Miss+India+Georgia

Jeff Dick, "Miss India Georgia," The Booklist. December 1 1998.

Mary Soete, "Miss India Georgia," Library Journal. June 1 1998.


Miss India Georgia Official Website
http://home.earthlink.net/~dfriedman1/migindex.html

Features biographies of and an interview with the filmmakers, as well as additional information on the film and the four young women featured in it.

Sandy Coleman, "Filmmaker uses craft to frame social issues," Boston Globe. September 28 1997.