Based on the splendid novel about family obligations and expectations by Pulitzer-Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake is a rarity, a film that preserves the depth and integrity of its source while bringing the story to life in an indelible way.
It is a moving generational drama focusing on a Bengali family but searingly universal in its subtle, tender grasp of love, regret and the search for identity.
The clash of cultures and generations is territory familiar to director Mira Nair ("Monsoon Wedding," "Mississippi Masala"), and she pays exquisite attention to every rich detail in the lives of the Gangulis, whose saga begins in the early 1970s in Calcutta, where reserved Ashoke (Irfan Khan) courts music-loving Ashima (Tabu).
Theirs is an arranged marriage, but there are hints that an attachment will grow. Ashima impishly slips into Ashoke's shoes before she has even glimpsed him, trying them on for size as daringly as she will accept his proposal to start a life together in New York.
Nair contrasts the two cities starkly, juxtaposing the chaotic, colorful streets and textured rooms of Calcutta and Ashima's large extended family with the frozen sterility of the Gangulis' silent, bare apartment, from which Ashima gazes at a wintry landscape and longs for India.
Then the Gangulis have a son, and in Bengali tradition they wait for a family member to choose a name. In the meantime, Ashoke suggests a nickname, Gogol, after his favorite writer. There's good reason for this decision, but the son, especially once he hits adolescence, can't imagine what it might be.
The Namesake's second half centers on the teenage and young-adult Gogol (Kal Penn), who routinely rejects or mocks his parents' traditions. He listens to loud rock music, smokes pot with his friends and, hating his name, legally changes it once he's old enough. He becomes an architect and dates a white girl (Jacinda Barrett), immersing himself in her family and WASPy, wealthy lifestyle.
The best of many insightful, wrenching moments comes when Ashoke explains to his grown son why he is named Gogol. The scene is so finely filmed and delicately acted -- Khan in particular tears out your heart -- that you can see the full realization hit Gogol, all he means to his father, the weight of all that love and sacrifice and the responsibility it brings.
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