The Namesake Review
By David Kempler
Indian flavor to a universal story
One of the ways a story can succeed is if the person reading or watching it can identify their own situation within it. While my heritage does not trace back to India I found it exceedingly easy to put myself in the places and situations of the characters. "The Namesake" is a "Roots" like look at the life of a family that came to America from India but it doesn't trace back hundreds of years, only one generation.
Gogol Ganguli (Kal Penn, Kumar of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) stars as the young Americanized Indian who wishes to distance himself from the traditions of his heritage and parents. It makes him uncomfortable in a way that all first generation Americans can probably identify with. Gogol and his sister live with their parents in the suburbs of New York and they are American right down to their iPods.
The kids are living typical American lives while their parents are an amalgam of both Indian culture and the necessities of functioning in their adopted home. Gogol's father, Ashoke (Irfan Kahn), came to America as a young man and has carved out a good life. Gogol's mother, the beautiful and soulful Ashima (Tabu) met Ashoke in an arranged marriage, something Gogol and his sister find as foreign as something could ever be.
It is only when tragedy strikes that Gogol experiences a connection with the culture of his parents. This sort of event in a film can often feel overly manipulative but Director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) does not allow that to happen. She handles all of it with a deft touch, preventing it from falling into a Movie of the Week styled Lifetime Network movie.
About two thirds of the way through "The Namesake" I thought that we were headed towards a message that would have capsized the proceedings but Nair and the writer, Sooni Taraporevela (Mississippi Masala), were only playing with us. They ultimately take it down a much more satisfying path.
Gogol drives everything but he in no way is driving solo. Everyone is doing their part and in the end we can all only wish that we have as good a support system in our real lives as the characters in "The Namesake."
