Director: Mira Nair
Starring: Kal Penn, Tabu, Irfan Khan, Zuleikha Robinson, Jacinda Barrett, Glenne Headly, Brooke Smith, Sahira Nair

- Reviewed by Vickie

Director Mira Nair’s big-screen adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s bestselling novel is a moving, heartfelt and deeply rich look at family as seen through the eyes of two generations of the Ganguli clan.

The film begins with the arranged marriage and subsequent, slow courtship of kindly and slightly geeky Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan) and the beautiful Ashima (Tabu) in India. Strangers when their union is crafted by their parents, the two build a relationship together and grow closer once they pack up their lives and immigrate to the United States. There, they struggle to maintain the traditions of their home country amid an ever-present pressure to assimilate to their new surroundings. This becomes even more of a challenge once they start a family and watch as their two children—rebellious Gogol (Kal Penn) and his younger sister, Sonia (Sahira Nair)—grow up to eschew their Indian culture for Americana.

Gogol is especially problematic, treating his parents as unwelcome intrusions in his life, and their cherished traditions as archaic and lame. In fact, he wants little to do with them and moves to Manhattan, where he ignores them entirely and enjoys the highlife with a fancy job as an architect and a wealthy, non-Indian girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett). But when tragedy strikes, and then strikes again, all of the Gangulis are forced to reevaluate their relationships with each other, and what it means to be a family.

Layered with scene upon scene of rich beauty, both visually and literally, Nair’s film is packed with greatness from start to finish. It clocks in over two hours, but could very easily have gone on for another hour more and I doubt anyone would have minded. Its success is a result of a number of fine factors, not the least of which is the screenplay, which manages to include all the necessary pivotal moments, with seamless transitions in between.

Films like this typically tend to side with one generation or the other; either the parents are presented as morons, or the children are. In this case, Nair does a fantastic job of maintaining a balance. Ashoke and Ashima’s story takes up the first third of the movie, allowing the audience to fall in love with them in the process. This creates an emotional foundation for all the transitions that follow. We feel Ashima’s fear when the couple moves into a tiny apartment in the 1970s; we ache for Ashoke when his efforts to bond with Gogol are rebuffed time and again; and watching them age becomes a brilliant exercise in poignancy. Similarly, watching Gogol’s transformation from bratty teenager to self-aware adult, and the audience’s love/hate relationship with him as he grows up, is fascinating. Nothing feels rushed or manufactured, and it’s as though we’re watching home movies from a family we’d really like to know.

The performances are terrific all around, with Bollywood stars Khan and Tabu turning in gorgeously nuanced work. Penn, who’s known largely for his comedic films, rises to the dramatic occasion and proves himself as an actor here. Even the supporting players—including Barrett, Zuleikha Robinson (as Gogol’s wife) and Brooke Smith (as Ashima’s co-worker)—fit perfectly into the narrative tapestry.

The Namesake is the first wholly satisfying film I’ve seen in 2007. It made me feel warm and fuzzy, and it made me cry on multiple occasions. Most of all, it made me reexamine my own family traditions, and my stake in them, more closely and with much more understanding.

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