Dir. Mira Nair , India/USA, 2006, 122 mins,
Cast: Irfan Khan, Kal Penn, Tabu
Review by Carol Allen
We have a very lively British Asian
culture in the UK now with writers such as Hanif Kureishi,
Meera Syal and Ayub Khan-Din and the plays, films, novels
and television shows they have written and in Syal's case
starred in. We are not so aware however of the Asian cultural
contribution in the United States. Apart from Nair's own
Mississippi Masala (1991) one would be pushed to name many
other major movies about Asians in America, while the late
Ismail Merchant once said that as a young man in New York
in the seventies, he felt like he was the only Asian there.
From the evidence of this film and Jhumpa Lahiri's novel
on which it's based, this must
have been a feeling rather than a fact, as it appears there was a considerable
Bengali community in seventies New York and from the point of view of a British
audience, it is really interesting and enlightening to get an insight into
the cultural adjustment and generation conflict of young
American Asians as opposed to British Asians.
"The Namesake" is primarily though
an absorbing and very gripping human story of Ashoke (Khan),
who emigrates to America from his native Calcutta with
his young bride Ashima (Tabu). They settle in a chilly
flat in New York, and soon Ashima is pregnant with their
first child. When his son is born, under pressure to choose
a name quickly Ashoke calls him after the author of the
book he was reading, when he made the life changing decision
to emigrate - Gogol, the namesake of the title. But as
Gogol grows up, he finds himself torn between the traditional
values of his parents and the demands of being a modern
young American in a very different society.
Khan and Tabu as Ashoke and Ashima are perfect As a young
man he is awkward and slightly nerdy, taking great delight
in teaching his young bride about New York, while she is
shy, stunningly beautiful and enchanting. The development
of their love affair within what is originally an arranged
marriage is charming and a bit of an argument for the custom
of arranged marriage with consent, contrasted as it is with
what later happens to Gogol's marriage, which being in a
different time and place is subject to different pressures. It is somewhat
unusual these days to see a strong, long term marriage featured at the
centre of a film. And both actors age beautifully from youth to late middle
age. Penn as Gogol is very good as the heavy eyed, shaggy teenager, who
matures into an interesting, talented but conflicted young man. And his
relationships with the women in his life Max (Jacinda Barret), his all
American girl friend and fellow immigrant Moushimi (Zuleika Robinson) both
ring very true. One is so in love with all these characters that it is
a terrible shock when one of them dies, an event which really brings out
the cultural conflict in its effects on Ashima and Gogol and emphasises
Max's position as an outsider. An engrossing, intriguing and very satisfying
piece of film making.
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