The Namesake

[JCPhoenix]

Directed by Mira Nair

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Tagline: Two Worlds. One Journey.

Plot Outline: American-born Gogol, the son of Indian immigrants, wants to fit in among his fellow Bostonians, despite his family's unwillingness to let go of their traditional ways. (from IMDb)

Starring: Tabu, Irfan Khan, Kal Penn, Zuleikha Robinson, Jacinda Barrett

Runtime: 122 minutes



Review

I was pretty surprised to see that Kal Penn doesn't actually appear onscreen till a third/halfway into the movie...in fact, while Kal Penn has more screentime in the last section of the film, his two parents in the film actually both have equal amounts of screentime as well, as they carry much of the first part of the film which focuses on their relationship and how they met each other, etc. Because of this, the film is somewhat oddly structured and its actual story unveils in sort of smaller ways (ie: the film doesn't really have a goal, etc driving it through each scene) which does make the narrative a little sloppy. But that sprawling sort of feel where we follow the different characters etc is sort of what gives the film its charm and richness in its characters.

I almost kind of couldn't get over the fact that teenage Kal Penn was pretty much Kumar but he does very well in the rest of the film for the most part; it's not a straightforward dramatic role, it has some comedic elements to it and I think he fits the role...I actually thought the namesake element that tied the film together was probably where the film was weakest though...but it was nice to see the story evolve fairly organically throughout rather than being driven in.

While I had issues with the film like said above, a lot of it for me is redeemed by how well this portrays the three cultures - the Indian, the American, and the in-betweens...it's a very very rich film when it comes to culture and it is endlessly fascinating even for that sole reason. And it portrays everything thoughtfully and interestingly, not with the standard stereotypes that might come along - as an Indian woman thanked Nair at the post-film Q&A for portraying the culture accurately and not resorting to the standard "women singing around trees" kind of stereotype.

I thought Tabu was fantastic as the mother, she really pulled off both the younger and older versions of her character well. Kal Penn was decent and it was nice to see the hot Jacinda Barrett in the film for a little bit though her character's kinda useless.

While I'm not Indian, I am a Chinese-Canadian who was born and raised in Canada, so I'm in a similar situation to the main character which helped me relate (though my parents are more Canadianized)...

Overall, I enjoyed the film - it isn't without its flaws but I think it's worth a watch.

7/10




Some other random stuff that Nair talked about at the Q&A for anyone interested:

-The film is meant to evoke that state of being, when you're in two different worlds (or are from two different worlds), that state that she said immigrants are really in, where they may be in one country but their heart belongs to their homeland. She said she used a lot of bridges and something else I couldn't remember for the transitions, things that you could look at and look similar in both worlds where you can look at them and think you're in one place but are in the other.

-She talked about the difficulties raising money for a predominantly non-Caucasian film and how she was lucky enough to get the financing in place for this because her former movies have all generally made money and it's been a little easier each time and she made a crack about how people will throw a million at her assuming that she's gonna remake Monsoon Wedding essentially and how this is very different, on a bigger scale with two continents and 80+ actors and how someone called the film a "non-Caucasian film with a Caucasian budget".

-She talked about how the project was very personal to her as she's been "in-between" the two worlds of New York and Calcutta that were in the film and how she read the book on a plane, got off the plane and tried to get the rights immediately and when she did, she dropped all the other projects she was on/in talks about and within 9 months, was shooting it (perhaps it was Harry Potter 5 she was talking about?).

-She talked about how she's very much into the music process of her films and how she heard something by Nitin Sawhney early on in the process that fit exactly the tone of the project she wanted and how she decided when she started that she'd work with him rather than her usual composer (Michael Danna [Breach, Tideland, Little Miss Sunshine, Water, Capote, The Sweet Hereafter]- who she mentioned was Toronto-based which I never knew, cool) just because she felt that this project was kind of a flagship (I think that's the word she used) for Indians in film...she also talked about how she worked with him on the theme, and rejected many many themes until they came to the one that they used in the film and then worked off and expanded that.

-Some absolutely stupid person decided to ask a question about why the characters were not political or spouting political stuff (which is just...wtf...like asking why people in Babel aren't making witty one-liners or why Fellowship isn't realistic) and while it was a stupid question, she went into how she wanted to portray the racism in the film a bit, as she talked about how it was more subtle stuff, a more "sophisticated racism" and she cited as a clear example a scene where a woman talks about how she had a friend who went to India and came back really thin. I thought what she said was interesting anyway and to me, this is the difference between the unrealistic hammer-over-the-head racism in Crash and real racism which is much more subtle (and which she portrays quite well in subtle ways in The Namesake).

-She also talked about how she had never heard of Kal Penn before but she said she has a 15-year old (and she talked about an Asian who was like a son or something like that - it wasn't clear here, maybe she has an adopted son or daughter?) and to him, Kal Penn is like God (and she made a small crack about Harold and Kumar)...and so her kids would show her the Harold and Kumar stuff on the computer and tell her that he was the one for the role and she'd ignore it and think he was just some goofy actor. But she said she got a very nice letter from him that talked about how Salaam Bombay (I think it was this, might've been Mississippi Masala though) was an inspiration for him to be in films and to know that he could be an Indian in films and so she met with him and ultimately decided he was right for the role.