The Namesake (2006)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Mira Nair

Writers (WGA):

Sooni Taraporevala (screenplay)
Jhumpa Lahiri (novel)

Release Date:

9 March 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Two Worlds. One Journey.

Plot:

American-born Gogol, the son of Indian immigrants, wants to fit in among his fellow New Yorkers, despite his family's unwillingness to let go of their traditional ways.

Plot Keywords:

Train | Singer | Bengali | Death | Parents

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Kal Penn	...	Gogol / Nikhil
Tabu	...	Ashima
Irrfan Khan	...	Ashoke
Jacinda Barrett	...	Maxine
Zuleikha Robinson	...	Moushumi Mazumdar
Brooke Smith	...	Sally
Sahira Nair	...	Sonia
Jagannath Guha	...	Ghosh
Ruma Guha Thakurta	...	Ashoke's Mother
Sandip Deb	...	Music Teacher
Sukanya	...	Rini
Tanushree Shankar	...	Ashima's Mother
Sabyasachi Chakraborty	...	Ashima's Father
Tamal Ray Chowdhury	...	Ashoke's Father
Dhruv Mookerji	...	Rana

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexuality/nudity, a scene of drug use, some disturbing images and brief language.

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

India | USA

Language:

Hindi | English | Bengali | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Ireland:12A | Singapore:NC-16 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Netherlands:12 | Germany:6 | Portugal:M/12 | Brazil:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-11 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | New Zealand:M | South Korea:15 | Norway:11

Filming Locations:

Calcutta, West Bengal, India

Company:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Trivia:

Kate Hudson and Natalie Portman were considered for the part of Maxine.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the Ganguli family visits Calcutta in 1977 one of the advertisements on the streets is for the Calcutta based newspaper "Telegraph". The Telegraph was established in 1982.

Quotes:

Gogol Ganguli: Who's Pierre?
[silence]
Gogol Ganguli: Are you having an affair?
[more silence]
Moushumi Mazumdar: Maybe it's not enough that we are both Bengali.
Gogol Ganguli: That's not why I love you.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2007-03-10)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Bhor Holo Dor Kholo

I Didn't Want It To End

This film is everything a good movie is supposed to be: diverting and credible. You are left in no doubt as to the integrity of the characters in their respective roles. The movie commences with Ashima, a young girl in India (played by intoxicating Tabu), introduced to a prospective husband, Ashoke. She decides she likes him because before entering the room to see him for the first time she sees his Western wingtiped shoes outside the door and decides he must be an interesting person. He is further endeared to her (and us) when she is asked to recite a beloved sample of English verse and he smiles at her composure and suppressed perturbation when interrupted by his pedantic father. She is married to this engineer and taken to the U.S. to live in New York, and slowly begins to adapt. The movie follows her for 25 years as she sees her two children become Americans and face their own (and in the case of one, very poignant) issues.

Loneliness, joy, tribe, custom, and life's relentless call for adaptation are major themes, and they unfold beautifully. Perhaps its most understated point is that none of the good would have come to pass but for the success of the arranged marriage between Ashoke and Ashima, i.e., that this wonderful young woman had the good fortune to link up with the kind and loving Ashoke. It is the success of the parents' marriage that makes everything possible. As a Westerner unfamiliar with the concept of arranged unions I shivered at the thought of what could have happened if Ashoke had not been such a decent man and loving husband and father.

This is a wonderful film.