The Namesake [HD]

"For Our Parents - Who Gave Us Everything"
This movie deals with Bengali culture in India and families both in their native lands and abroad - and I have to say is one of the most satisfying and beautiful watches I had the pleasure of sitting down to. To an Irishman of 49 and typical multiplex type, I'd admit that most of the cast is unrecognizable to me, but that makes no odds, because all are uniformly superb. And I love the insights the film gives into a culture as fascinating as theirs.

It begins in 1977 when a young Bengali man (who has been to study in the USA since 1974) is back in his native Calcutta to meet his new bride - one that is picked out for him whether he likes her or not. He is Ashoke, an engineer with prospects - played subtly and gently by a fantastic Irrfan Khan. Ashoke gets real lucky - his bride is the quietly beautiful Ashima (it means limitless, played by the gorgeous Bollywood star Tabu). Waiting with her parents, Ashoke looks uncomfortable but resigned - its been done this way for...

An interesting look at a different culture
Director Mira Nair's The Namesake (based on the novel) is the story of a Bengali family's journey through life in New York after emigrating from India. Their son Gogol (Kal Penn) is caught in a culture gap between his parents' old traditions of India and the clashing modern ways of the United States.

I have to admit I didn't know much about Indian culture prior to seeing this film; not the way I knew about the Japanese, the Chinese, the French, and Italians, anyway. It was easy to relate to the family's alienation and feelings of loneliness. On top of the generation gap between their parents and them, Gogol (whose father named after Russian writer Nikolai Gogol) and his sister Sonia struggle to understand their parents' take on life. The film skillfully deals with life's most important issues and stays in touch with the essence of the characters. The cinematography is beautiful and the performances are heartfelt. Kal Penn sheds his stoner image from Harold and Kumar to...

Truly Universal and Cathartic Adaptation of Lahiri's Time-Spanning Novel
Meticulously observed and wonderfully heartfelt, this time-spanning 2007 family dramedy represents a return to form for director Mira Nair, who faltered somewhat with 2004's elaborate but lugubrious "Vanity Fair". This one is also a literary adaptation but this time from a contemporary best-seller by Jhumpa Lahiri, who wrote an emotionally drawn story about first generation Bengali immigrants to the United States and their U.S.-born children. It's an intricate book full of careful nuances, and Nair, along with screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala, captures most of them in a most loving manner. The story speaks fluently to the universal struggle to extricate ourselves from the obligation of family and a perceived enslavement to the past. Nair and Taraporevala manage to transcend the necessarily episodic nature of the novel to make it an involving journey toward self-acceptance.

The film initially focuses on Ashoke Ganguli and his arranged marriage to Ashima, a classically trained...

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