The Namesake is an affecting saga of an Indian family torn between two cultures, writes Michael Dwyer
MONSOON Wedding director Mira Nair continues her explorations of contemporary Indian identity in this acutely observed and engaging movie based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, who has a cameo.
It was on the set of Nair's last film, Vanity Fair, that Gabriel Byrne recommended Lahiri's book to her. The actor felt that Nair was the ideal director to bring the novel to the screen, given that it shares her preoccupation with examining the consequences when traditions and cultures clash.
Before she started making her own films, Nair had studied at Delhi University and at Harvard, which made her the perfect match for a story that alternates between India and the US.
Spanning two generations and set over three decades, The Namesake begins in mid-1970s Calcutta with the arranged marriage of a young singer, Ashima (Bollywood star Tabu) and her US-based spouse, Ashoke (Irrfan Khan from The Warrior).
Ashima and Ashoke are strangers to each other. While Ashima trusts that this problem will be resolved with time, she also has to cope with the burdens of loneliness and dislocation when she leaves the warmth of family life in sweltering Calcutta for the unfamiliar environment of wintry New York.
The dramatic focus eventually shifts to her son (Kal Penn), who is named Gogol after Ashoke's favourite author. As with many an immigrant offspring born on another continent, Gogol assimilates the American way
of life as he grows up, and as in many a dramatic treatment of that theme, he is faced with difficult choices between allegiances to the family traditions of his roots and the lifestyle he has adopted from his schoolfriends and neighbours.
Gogol's dilemma is heightened when he is torn between two lovers - a devoted white partner (Jacinda Barrett) from a wealthy background, and a confident French literature graduate (Zuleikha Robinson) who shares his Bengali heritage.
He's not alone. "I lost the company of my parents when I came to America, and now I feel I'm losing my family all over again," Ashoke declares as she experiences cultural alienation within her domestic life after Gogol and his sister grow up.
The problems of adapting an evidently expansive and eventful novel for the screen only become apparent in a few abrupt narrative and timescale leaps. Otherwise, Nair's intimate, poignant and enthralling film is imbued with her trademark humanism and rich visual style.
The ageing of the characters is adeptly handled in both the subtle application of convincing make-up and the depth of the performances Nair elicits from the radiant and endearing Tabu as well as Penn, who reveals a range and maturity untapped in the silly comedies Van Wilder and Harold & Kumar Get the Munchies.
