The Namesake, directed by Mira Nair, based upon the novel of the same name by Jhumpa Lahiri
A little about the film: The lively young singer Ashima (Tabu) meets her future husband Ashoke (Khan) on the eve of their marriage in 1977 Calcutta. She then sets up a home with him in New York, where he works. Years pass and now their grown son Gogol (Penn), named after Ashoke’s favourite author, has become a rising-star architect who must come to grips with his heritage–with the help of his parents, his sister (Nair), his American fiancée (Barrett) and a Bengali family friend (Robinson) – sourced from Shadows on the wall
Here is an enticing clip from the film.
Ok .. so personally this film has been a life altering one. Dont think any diasporic film has touched me as much as this one. Apart from the fact that it deals with the bengali diaspora (which is very close to my heart), it was the attention to detail and the tiny idiosyncracies of a day to day bong lifestyle that seemed superbly enchanting. Almost as if my family and myself were on the big screen.
The film was very obviously abbreviated, which i found to be unpretentious. It was a film that clearly admitted to being adapted from a book and for that i salute Mira Nair. Otherwise, the film was loaded with very sweet insights into a bong family household. My favorite had to be when Gogol and his sister visit Kolkatta and their aunt very typically finds the need to have their feet sizes marked out and have chotti’s (slippers) from Bata made available as soon as possible – ‘Ei! Bata thekeyi anbi .. bujhli ??’ (make sure you get them from Bata )…….. delightful!
Ashoke’s composure, Ashima’s helplessness and Gogol’s inner turmoil could not have been depicted any better. I walked out of the screening with a smile on my face and the longing to call mom and dad and say ‘hello’. They asked me what the film was about and surprisingly i didn’t have an answer, dont think the movie had a definite beginning and an end – it was a beautiful slice of life without any such clear cut resolution.
Am not a voracious reader and the stuff that i do end up reading are not the kind that films could be made of (no i am not referring to instruction manuals ).. so i hate it when people watch a movie and ask me ‘… but have you read the book?’ In this case however, i felt the urge to lie and say ‘OFCOURSE!! wasn’t it great’ … i mean its a given .. isnt it ???
Enjoyed the fact that Kal Penn kept a production blog during the making of the film and the festival circuit. i sure hope he is going to make a post about what he thought about DIFF and Dubai. Check it out here http://thenamesake.typepad.com/blog/
..and lastly, I must must must metion the superb music in the film. It was ACE! Kudos to Nitin Sawhney and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Read more about it here