The Namesake (2007)

An incident with Ashoke Ganguli (Irrfan Khan) changes him for good and takes his journey, half-way across the globe and which spans a generation from Kolkata to New York and characterize a cultural drift between the two.

Mira Nair [Salaam Bombay (1988), Monsoon Wedding (2001)] directs The Namesake which is derivation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s book of the same title. It got critical attention then especially since it was coming after Lahiri’s Pulitzer award winning and much acclaimed book The Interpreter of Maladies.

In the 70’s Calcutta, Ashoke Ganguli meets Ashima (Tabu) her wife to be–a cultured bengali woman with an interest in fine arts–at her residence where she’s much enamored by his shoes of a distinct US brand. Ashoke, at this point is doing his doctorate degree in fibre optics in a New York city university. The hot humid weather of Calcutta makes way to the cold white landscape of New York. Ashima now married and settled in the daily grind of the western world with some difficulty, gives birth to a baby boy. Due to some strange circumstances, he’s named ‘Gogol’ after Nikolai Gogol, the famous writer who is Ashoke’s favorite and whose writing has had a profound effect on his own life. But as Gogol (Karl Penn) grows into a teenager, amongst the new generation americans , his name becomes an object of embarrassment for him. Thus begins a confrontation of cultural values and peer differences which threatens to drift the family away from each other.

The representation of Ashima from a youthful girl to an old erudite mother speaks volumes about Tabu’s immense talent to touch the heart and soul of any role. Ditto for Irrfan Khan who’s ‘bengalisque’ english interspersed with humour charms the audience completely and his famous walk with a limp from a previous incident in the movie cannot be missed till the end. The central character of Gogol, around which the theme revolves is also beautifully depicted by Karl Penn who’s mellow in his approach towards the role. In my opinion, The Namesake‘s absolute triumph lies in it’s characterization of the actors for the story. Once that was accomplished, it was half the battle won for Mira Nair.

I haven’t read the book to make a comparison between the written word and the cinematic experience and that has helped me in enjoying the movie freely. The cinematography, the portrayal of the 70s India era and the assimilation of English and Bengali dialogues all adds to the aura. A must-see movie for movie lovers.