The Namesake
WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING
Review by Nikhat Kazmi, Times of India
The Indian diaspora finally finds its voice: elegant, articulate and ekdum real. Here, there is no hysterical clash-of-culture cacophony about how the Patels, Gangulis and the Punjabis leave India, only to create Little Indiafs all over the world. And here there is no hullabaloo about the Angrezi-born-confused-desi dilemmas that the second generation NRI kids succumb to: an overdose of drugs, sex and the dark side of the moon. Instead, there is a gentle probing, a mild introspection on cross cultural conflicts coupled with a quiet celebration of the idea of India, minus all chauvinism.
If Monsoon Wedding was a wild and rumbustious festival of India (read Punjabi culture), then The Namesake is a Haiku about Hindustan: minimalist, magical and intensely moving. Mira Nair takes Jhumpa Lahiri's novel and transforms it into visual poetics, using her colour palette to create a riveting kaleidoscope of contrasts.
If New York is captured in its winter whites, greys and pastel interiors - with just an occasional shot of autumnal fire - then the 1970s Calcutta is virtually a riot of colour and chaos. The grandmother shopping for fresh vegetables at her doorstep, the grandfather creating canvases of Howrah and the Hooghly, the shabby trams rattling down the decrepit tracks and the folk singer finding a resonance in foreign souls...the camera simply seduces the scenery into syrupy frames. But more than the cinematography, it is the soundtrack - long tracks of silence and solitary dialogues - that brings out the loneliness of the protagonists as they try to find new ground beneath their feet.
The film captures the journey of two generations of the Ganguli family in America. Ashima and Ashok (Tabu and Irrfan) leave for foreign shores after their arranged marriage and try and build a home and a family in a culture that both lures and scares them. They need to discover each other and the new country too. But the passage is almost lyrical and the hiccups are mild as the good Bengali couple soon find an extended family of Bengalis who join them on births, christenings and birthdays.
The story soon shifts to the second generation - their son Gogol and daughter Sonia - who ostensibly are thoroughbred Americans. Except that Gogol canft understand why he had to be given such a strange name. They go through their regular round of Americanisms, only to find out that therefs a long journey of self-discovery still beckoning them.
India is an idea that lives in the heart and the mind, rather than a land-locked territory; and India is a style of upbringing and attitude that transcends territory. Great performances, an iridescent canvas and a topical theme: The Namesake is Mira Nair's tribute to her janmabhoomi.
CBS news: 'Namesake' Explores Indian, U.S. Culture - CBS Review
Nair's previous film "Monsoon Wedding," her latest release, "The Namesake," deals with identities and relationships, particularly those of Indians and Americans.
"This film is a piece of my heart. Right after I read the book, I knew I had to make it into a film," Nair says.
Based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri, the movie depicts a young Bengali man named Ashoke Ganguli, played by Irrfan Khan, who leaves his close-knit family in Calcutta to get a Ph.D. in the United States. He goes back home to marry Ashima Ganguly, played by Tabu, and they move to New York. She leaves behind a bustling home full of people in Kolkata, India, and it takes time to get accustomed to the loneliness she feels in the Big Apple. Soon enough she has two lovely children, Sonia, a daughter, and Gogol, a son who is played by Kal Penn of "Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle" fame.
The kids grow up with Indian values at home and Westernized ones at school. This disparity is most vividly seen in Gogol's relationship with his American girlfriend, Maxine, who comes from a very liberal family - the opposite of what Gogol has seen all his life.
The film juxtaposes New York and Kolkata, using the Brooklyn and Howdah bridges to reinforce the way the two cities helped define Ashoke and Ashima's lives.
Like Mira, Kolkata is where Nair spent 12 years of her childhood. She says she has a love for Bengali culture and tried to capture it in her film.
Khan plays a silent but austere father and husband in the film. In an informal chat session after a special screening of the film Wednesday at the Asia Society in New York, he said, "I was very worried that Mira expected me to speak in an Americanized accent, so when I went to meet Jhumpa's family, I secretly recorded her father so that I could ape how he spoke." Khan has starred in several mainstream Bollywood films, including "Maqbool" and "Charas," most often as a bad guy.
Co-star Tabu has more than 60 Hindi and Telugu films to her credit and has twice won the coveted National Award for her performances in "Maachis" and "Chandini Bar." When asked how the aging process was dealt with in the film, Tabu said, "The make-up artists took care of that." She also had to work on modulating her voice from a young chirpy twenty-something to a 49-year-old, her age at the end of the movie.
Nair is now working on "Shantaram," starring Johnny Depp. The film is based on a book that has been wildly popular in Australia and India. It's about a convict who goes to Mumbai to escape a 19-year prison sentence in Australia.
Cast
* Tabu as Ashima Ganguli
* Irfan Khan as Ashoke Ganguli
* Kal Penn as Gogol Ganguli
* Sahira Nair as Sonali Ganguli
* Jacinda Barrett as Maxine Ratliffe
* Zuleikha Robinson as Moushumi Mazoomdar
* Ruma Guha Thakurta as Ashoke's Mother
Soundtrack
The soundtrack has varied music, Indian, Anglo-Indian (by Nitin Sawhney), and a French piece. One British-Indian electronica piece is State of Bengal's "IC408." The ringtone from Moushumi's mobile phone is the song "Riviera Rendezvous" by Ursula 1000 from the album Kinda' Kinky - this is the same song that is played when Gogol and Moushumi first sleep together. The Indian classical pieces (performed on screen by Tabu) were sung by Mitali Banerjee Bhawmik, a New Jersey based musician.
