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THE NAMESAKE Send This Review to a Friend
Director Mira Nair’s film “The Namesake” based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s popular novel turns out to be exceptionally heartwarming and engrossing. It is a beautifully realized family drama exploring personal relationships in the context of the pull of one’s culture and ethnicity even though the family environment has changed. In this case, the core values come from India, carried over to the United States by a Bengali family that emigrates, and the subsequent evolvement of an American-born son who after first resisting family traditions in his effort to be Americanized learns to value his heritage. More than that, he learns to appreciate his parents more fully.
The story also looks tenderly at the older generation as well, thereby providing a completeness that is also extremely satisfying. The screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala astutely packs into the playing time much richness of character and penetrating dialogue. With superb, touching performances throughout, and the flavorful capture of the environment whether in Calcutta or New York, “The Namesake” is so involving and honest in the emotions it generates that one leaves feeling intimate knowledge of the various family members. We are made to care about them deeply.
The canvas for the story is broad, with pivotal events affecting the lives of the Ganguli family. Ashoke, played by Irrfan Kahn with consistent sincerity that makes him very likable, remarkably survives a train accident in India. There subsequently is an arranged marriage with Ashima, portrayed by renowned Indian actress Tabu in what surely has to stand as among the year’s finest performances. The two go off to America to start a new life, with Ashoke working as a teacher and Ashima having to adapt to her new environment and the loneliness that comes from being away from her family in India. One of the film’s special and unusual achievements is to track the love that develops over the years from a marriage of strangers.
A son is born to the couple, then a daughter, and the boy is named Gogol after the Russian writer for a reason that the grown Gogol, played by Kal Penn in another of the film’s marvelous performances, eventually comes to understand after first resenting a name like Gogol Ganguli. Gogol is determined to be like other American youths, and he falls in love with Maxine (Jacinda Barrett), a blonde beauty from a wealthy family. We suspect that the relationship, however sincere and however accepting the respective parents may be, can’t last amid the inevitable cultural and family differences.
The next woman in Gogol’s life turns out to be Moushumi, whom he knew as an awkward child. Now she is a sexy woman played with sultry appeal by Zuleikha Robinson, and Gogol succumbs to charms honed by her stay in Paris and having assorted lovers. Is the romantic solution in his life involvement with a transplanted Bengali woman closer to his roots?
The film always gives the impression of being broader than any particular situation that develops. As it moves along, events substantially change the life of Ashima, and that is another eloquent development that further enriches the film even in the face of sadness.
Nair and her screenwriter understand so much about the various characters and succeed in communicating such understanding. “The Namesake” has some elements of soap opera peculiar to family dramas, but the intelligence and honesty inherent in the story telling rise above that. The film, with its humor, its character delineation, its rich cultural trappings and its effective location shooting, is immensely entertaining as well as emotionally satisfying and culturally enlightening. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release.
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