The Namesake

When I read 'The Namesake' by Jhumpa Lahiri a while ago, I was very impressed. She had unerringly captured the emotional turbulence and a sense of not belonging anywhere that millions of immigrants go through. I even placed this book above her Pulitzer prize winning 'Intepreter of Maladies'. However, when I heard that Mira Nair was planning to make a movie out of this, I was a bit skeptical. This was the sort of ficiton that does not lend itself easily to a movie screenplay. There is no plot or twist. No definite start or end. And infact, no moral or message. It was with a sense of curiosity that I went to watch The Namesake this weekend with my wife and a bunch of friends.

And what I saw was beyond all my expectations. To say Mira Nair has done justice to the book is an understatement. She has brought the book to the masses without losing the nuances and the subtle touches that Jhumpa Lahiri excels in - be it Ashima asking Ashoke "Do you want me to say I love you?" or Gogol's naani asking her servant to follow him when he goes jogging in the dilapidated streets of Calcutta.

The next 2 paragraphs might contain some spoilers.

The cast is probably the biggest strength of this movie. Irrfan as Ashoke and Tabu as Ashima have given incredible performances. Infact, Tabu has completely stolen the show from Kal Pen who plays Gogol. My favorite scene in the movie was when Tabu hears about her husband's death on the phone. Her initial reaction is that this has to be a mistake. Soon, she's slowly plunged into darkness and dispair and tries to fix this by turning on all the lights in the house. Her thumb starts twitching uncontrollably, but tears fail her. You sense the feeling of claustrophobia that slowly creeps up on her as she runs out of the garage and lets out a heart-rending scream. Later, her transition from being a meek clueless Indian housewife to being a strong maternal presence is shown beautifully. I can't imagine anyone other than Tabu handling this role.

Irrfan and Kal Penn are not too far behind. One of the most poignant moments in the book is the scene where Ashoke explains to Gogol the significance of his name. This has again been captured wonderfully well in the movie, with both actors underplaying the scene with subtle expressions and body language. You can feel a special bond being established between father and son in that particular moment. Gogol struggles his whole life with his name, something that Jhumpa apparently went through as well. Also, his attempts to make sense of his Indian parents and upbringing and balancing it with his American lifestyle have been shown much more realistically and starkly than the usual ABCD flicks we come across.

The photography and editing is very good. Calcutta has been shown as the run down and dirty city it was in the seventies and eighties, while they have thankfully not glorified NewYork too much like other movies based in the city. People who've already read the book will notice that the switch to NY from Boston has been made, probably because NY brings out the All-American flavor in movies better. The family's trip to Taj Mahal, where Gogol finally decides he wants to be an architect, is remarkable for the breathtaking angles in which the camera has captured the Taj.

One of the toughest things to do when translating such an epic book (that spans multiple generations) into a movies is to figure out which moments to dwell on and what pages to cut. Here again, Mira Nair shows her touch. So, we never see Pierre in the movie. The 'affair' is shown through a note written on a book, a phone call in French and ultimately a chance showdown between husband and wife. However, there was one thing I found lacking. A big part of Gogol's childhood were the house parties, fraternizing with other Bengali families and feeling that he did not belong in this setting. He was a very lonely child growing up. This has not been brought out very well in the movie, even though they do show their Bengali parties with their fried samosas and drunken uncles.

The bottomline is that this is a very well-made movie with a great cast, sensitive direction and a very real story that a lot of people can recognize themselves with. A few of my friends had never read the book, and they ended up really enjoying the movie as well. So I guess reading the book is not really a pre-requisite to viewing this movie, although it did help me understand the subtleties of each scene better. Ultimately, the movie - just like the book - leaves you with a feeling of emptiness as well as a ray of hope about the future. It does not preach. But it does tell you the importance of understanding your past and that its never late to make a fresh start. As the movie ended and the audience started filing out the theater, there was complete silence, something you don't associate with an Indian audience (although there were quite a few foreigners). Each of them appeared to be drowned in his/her own thoughts. Its the kind of movie that leaves its mark on you whether you like it or not. As for me, I was ready to go home and call my parents in India.