Review : The Namesake

Rating : Good (4/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2006
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Mira Nair
Cast : Tabu, Irfan Khan, Kal Penn, Zuleikha Robinson, Jacinda Barrett

THE NAMESAKE : HEART-FELT

I haven’t read “The Namesake”, the book upon which this film is based. I found it slow and ponderous, and so very “Bengali” that I couldn’t identify with it. I had to give it up mid-way. The film however, gets rid of the slow-paced bits, and makes the “Bengaliness” more like “desi-ness”, which isn’t hard to identify with.

The film is about Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, a Bengali couple, who move to the States, because of Ashoke’s job. Ashoke has come to the US of his own accord, but Ashima, though prepared to follow her husband, is the true immigrant, uprooted from the culture, society and family she is so very firmly entrenched in, back home. Once in her husband’s apartment in cold New York, Ashima learns new ways, and fashions her life around her family (a son and a daughter are born to them). The film moves forward with the kids growing up, and their apparent estrangement with the ways of their parents.

One imagines Ashoke and Ashima to be in an older age-group; Lahiri probably based her characters on adults her parents’ age. A generation back they were few desis and fewer desi-specific facilities (desi shops, restaurants, movie-theatres). It isn’t I imagine, like today, where in bigger cities, 24×7 desi radio stations are aplenty and you could just as easily see a Hindi film in a theatre, as you could the latest “Bourne Ultimatum”. I wasn’t born in the States, but much like Ashima moved here with my husband, which means that inspite of the generation gap, I sort of see Ashima’s view-point. And it’s not hard to roll back the years a little and see life as it may have been, and in your mind sympathise with Ashoke and Ashima as their values from back home conflict with the ones their kids assimilate from the society around them.

Friends told me that the film is depressing. I didn’t find it so. There are ups-and-downs in the film, tragedies and moments of happiness sprinkled through, but where in reality do you find anything different ? I choose to look at the film as one on coming to be at peace with yourself, you culture and your identity. Whereas Ashoke and Ashima have come to live permanently in their adopted country, they already have very well-developed identities, strong notions of culture, and know how and where they fit in. It is Gogol (and sister Sonia’s) struggle with their cross-cultural status, which is the focal point of the film.

The film is quite short, and that keeps it one the straight and narrow; indulgent forays into details (such as the book has) could have derailed it. The story is well-knit, the direction crisp, and the screen-play deft. Nair could not have chosen a better set of actors that Tabu and Irfan Khan to play Ashima and Ashoke respectively. Although Tabu doesn’t look very Bengali, she still manages to essay her role very well. And Khan plays Ashoke’s character with a vulnerability, which reminds me of my parents (it might remind you of yours). The scene with him at the airport bidding goodbye to Ashima as he heads off to another city for 6 months, renders the relationship between husband and wife beautifully.

Our very own Kalpen bhai (Kal Penn), as Gogol, does quite well too. Zuleikha Robinson plays Gogol’s love interest with panache. The cast also features a whole set of plentiful Mashis (apparently Lahiri played one of them, but was unable to locate her) and lots of relatives in India, all well-cast and realistic looking.

The film portrays both sides of the culture-conflict – that of the parents, and the other of Gogol (and the youngsters). It doesn’t take sides, doesn’t get preachy or moralistic on us, which garners it big-time brownie points from me. Gogol roams around carrying his awkward name and the cultural baggage his desi upbringing begets him, all the while trying to shrug it off and fit in with the society he sees around him. Ultimately it’s a question of culture and identity, and of Gogol finding his. But I also liked the fact that the film brought to the fore the fact that morality and culture are a state of mind, and just because people share your skin color doesn’t mean they were meant to be your soul-mates.