The Namesake film review

certificate_12A

THE NAMESAKE

Director Mira Nair has made a career of celebrating the culture of her native India. In films such as Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding, Nair has explored its rituals and those bound by it, both at home and abroad. The assimilation of deeply ingrained beliefs and Eastern customs into Western civilization is the central theme of The Namesake, which is filled with touching and forceful moments, but overall is less satisfactory than much of her previous work.

Based on Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, Sooni Taraporevala's script spans a period of 25 years. It follows the beautiful Ashima (Tabu), whose arranged marriage to Ashoke (Irfan Khan) takes her from her family and hometown of Calcutta to New York. The Namesake underlines the fact that, while you might be able to take the Indian out of India, you can never take India out of the Indian. Or, in the case of Ashima and Ashoke's son Gogol (Kal Penn), you can never take India out of an American born into an Indian family.

Adjusting to life in a foreign country is something familiar to Nair who left India to study at Harvard. The Namesake establishes the different problems Ashoke and Ashima face from those encountered by Gogol and his younger sister Sonia (Sahira Nair). The parents effectively sacrifice their own lives in the hope of a better future for Gogol and Sonia, a sacrifice their children don't always appreciate.

The film's title is in part a reference to the origins of Gogol's name, which was both a tribute to Ashoke's favourite author, the Russian Nikolai Gogol, and a reminder of the book he was reading at the time of a train crash in which he was the only survivor. With the words of a doomed fellow traveler, who encouraged Ashoke to see the world, ringing in his ears, as soon as he'd recovered he went to America.

Nair captures perfectly the tight bonds in Indian family life. She also brings out the energy of the country in the scenes when Gogol, Sonia and their parents visit India. What The Namesake does less effectively is avoid stereotypes. When Gogol dates an American, Maxine (Jacinda Barrett), against the hopes of his parents that he find an Indian girl, she is made into a culturally insensitive and spoiled cliché.