"Mamdani"—Meet Mira Nair, The Trailblazing Filmmaker Mom Behind NYC’s New Mayor

Her 34-year-old son was inaugurated as New York City’s first Muslim, South Asian, and African-born mayor on New Year’s Day, following an election that shocked the old guard and thrilled a new generation. In mom Mira Nair’s words, Zohran Mamdani “more than won the weekend” with his election.

Leave it to a filmmaker to draw the box office analogy. Nair, aka Momdani, may be trending now because of her son, but the India-born filmmaker, 68, has been blazing trails for decades. “I’m going to be the mother of New York City,” she told reporters after her son’s swearing in.

Mamdani embodies a lot of firsts, but Nair came first. Her films have long tackled complex social issues and captured universal themes in individual stories from around the globe, earning her dozens of glass-ceiling-breaking accolades, including an Oscar nomination.

It’s not hard to divine Nair’s legacy in her progressive son—yet he is just one of her creations. His political messages echo themes seen consistently in her work over the last four decades, not to mention in the tides of her exceptional life, where she has modeled balancing work and motherhood, art and commerce, creativity and public service.

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Photo credits: Nair by Maisha Film Lab; Mamdani by Dmitryshein