Her works have soared to the skies and plunged to the depths of despair. In between, there are celebrations of family, including a personal connection to Lancaster County.

Such is the life and craft of film director Mira Nair.

Born in India, Nair has made movies that explore streets populated by pimps and lowlifes (her breakthrough film, 1988's "Salaam Bombay!") and ascend to the glittering drawing rooms of upper-class English society, as seen in "Vanity Fair" (2004) with Reese Witherspoon. But also in her canon of work, Nair manages to bring stories of familial, if misguided, love in movies such as "Monsoon Wedding," and triumphant, if tragic, tales of trailblazing, as in last year's "Amelia," starring Hilary Swank as doomed aviatrix Amelia Earhart.

Nair refers to her contrasting moviemaking styles as "living between worlds."

Indeed.

Nair will the deliver the Mueller Fellowship Lecture, "Between Two Worlds: An Evening with Mira Nair," at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, at Franklin & Marshall College's Barshinger Center for Musical Arts. In advance of her lecture, the college will screen her 2006 film "The Namesake" at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 15, at Adams Auditorium in Kaufman Lecture Hall.

The trip to F&M is a family affair for Nair. Her nephew, Sahil Nair, is a senior at F&M. "I promised I would come to visit before he graduated," Nair said in a telephone interview from a snowy New York City.

Films such as "Salaam Bombay!" and "Monsoon Wedding" put Nair on the international map, but Americans might know her best as the director of "Amelia." Actress Swank not only starred in the film, but served as its executive producer.

"I really admired Hilary's work," said Nair, who worked closely with Swank on the film.

While Earhart's story is epic — she disappeared in 1937 during a high-profile trans-Pacific flight, triggering a massive oceanic search — Nair saw her journey as a more intimate one.

"I was really struck by her humility," Nair said of Earhart, "and her depth of vision." She described the celebrated pilot as "knowing no borders."

Films today are known for their computer-generated special effects, and "Amelia" has its share, especially in scenes of storms aloft. But otherwise, the filmmakers used real planes and real skies, including a re-creation of Earhart's beloved Lockheed Electra aircraft.

"I had to have a real Electra," Nair said, calling the plane "as much a real character" as Earhart herself.

Here on the ground, Nair is busy bringing "Monsoon Wedding" to the stage as a musical. She's also active in adapting Mohsin Hamid's acclaimed novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" to the screen.

But how does a director journey on film from the slums of Bombay — we call it Mumbai these days — to the pleasant, upper-class life of nuptials gone awry in "Monsoon Wedding" to the skies of Amelia Earhart, and back again?

"I choose these projects because they call to me," Nair said. "Once a subject gets under my skin, it doesn't let go of me."

Film director Mira Nair will deliver the Mueller Fellowship Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, at Barshinger Center for Musical Arts on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College. Admission is free. For more information, call 291-4282.