THE NAMESAKE (FILM)

'''The Namesake''' is a 2007 film which received a limited release in the United States on March 9, 2007. It has been screened at film festivals in Toronto and New York.
It is directed by Mira Nair and is based upon the novel ''The Namesake'' by Jhumpa Lahiri. Sooni Taraporevala adapted the novel to a screenplay. It is rated PG-13 for sexuality/nudity, a scene of drug use, some disturbing images and brief language.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Soundtrack

Trivia

References

See also

External links

Plot

''The Namesake'' describes the struggles between two first generation Indian immigrants, from West Bengal, to the United States, Ashima Ganguli (Tabu) and Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan), and their children, Gogol (Kal Penn) and Sonali (Sonia) (Sahira Nair). The featured locales are Kolkata, India, Queens, New York, and the New York City suburbs of Nyack and Oyster Bay.
The story begins as Ashoke and Ashima leave Culcutta and settle in New York City. Through a series of miscues, their son's nickname, Gogol (named after Russian author Nikolai Gogol), becomes his official birth name, an event which will shape many aspects of his life. The film uses Gogol's struggles over his name as a jumping off point to explore large issues of integration, assimilation and cultural identity. The film chronicles Gogol's cross-cultural experiences and his exploration of his Indian heritage, as the story shifts between the United States and India. Gogol eventually meets and falls in love with two women, Maxine (Jacinda Barrett) and Moushumi (Zuleikha Robinson), while his parents struggle to understand his modern, American perspectives on dating, marriage and love.
The story has some heart touching and memorable moments for example when Gogol's teacher while teaching the class about the great Russian writer Nikolai Gogol speaks about his personal life more in the negative shade than positive,which make the Gogol a laughing stock in the class.He comes back home and confronts with his dad,Ashoke,who then promptly tells him that the teacher forgot to tell them he was a famous writer.Gogol's dad gives him the short story The Overcoatwritten by the same writer Nikolai Gogol as a gradutation present. He furthur tells him that 'We all are from Gogol's (the writer) overcoat, one day you will understand'.

Cast

★ Tabu as Ashima Ganguli

★ Irfan Khan as Ashoke Ganguli

★ Kal Penn as Gogol

★ Sahira Nair as Sonali

★ Jacinda Barrett as Maxine

★ Zuleikha Robinson as Moushumi

★ Ruma Guha Thakurta as Ashoke's Mother

Soundtrack

The soundtrack has varied music, Indian, Anglo-Indian (by Nitin Sawhney), and a French piece. One British-Indian electronica piece is State of Bengal's ''IC408.'' The ringtone from Moushumi's mobile phone is the song "Riviera Rendezvous" by Ursula 1000 from the Album "Kinda' Kinky". The Indian classical pieces (performed on screen by Tabu) were sung by Mitali Banerjee Bhawmik, a New Jersey based musician.

Trivia

★ Jhumpa Lahiri, the author of the novel ''The Namesake'', appears in the film as Aunt Jhumpa.

★ Mira Nair initially wanted Rani Mukerji to play the role of Ashima after she had seen her in Mani Ratnam's ''Yuva''. She could not sign the film due to date problems (She was filming for Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna). After that, Mira Nair wanted Konkona Sen Sharma to play the role. She couldn't commit due to her mother Aparna Sen's film ''15, Park Avenue''. After which the director signed Tabu for the role.^[1]

★ Like the character he plays, actor Kal Penn modified his name from Kalpen Modi, when his agents suggested he anglicize it to get more auditions in Hollywood. In the end credits, he is listed twice: Gogol -- Kal Penn and Nikhil -- Kalpen Modi. Like Tabu, he was also not Mira Nair's first choice for the role, even though he contacted her several times about it. Finally, her son, who had loved Kal Penn's performance in ''Harold and Kumar go to White Castle'' convinced her to audition Penn for the role.

★ The film was originally the most distant of three projects Mira Nair and Sooni Taraporevala were working on together, but was the first produced.

★ Screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala wrote the final drafts of the film just as her own photography book on India's Parsi Zoroastrians was being published.

★ The novel was set in Boston, Massachusetts, but the locale was moved to New York City in the film adaptation. The timing of events in the movie is also about ten years later than the novel.

★ Renowned Subaltern Studies project scholar Partha Chatterjee, famous for his work on nationalism has a cameo in the film, credited as Reformed Hindu.

★ The book Ashoke presents Gogol on his graduation in June 1995, a relatively new translation of Nikolai Gogol's short stories by Pevear and Volokhonsky, was not actually published until 1998.^[2]

★ Actors Irfan Khan and Tabu starred together as a rather different kind of couple in Maqbool, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth set in the Bombay underworld.

References

1. [1]
2. [2]

See also

★ Nikolai Gogol's "The Overcoat"

External links

★ Audio Interview of Mira Nair- Director of "The Namesake"

★ Review of the Movie "The Namesake"

★ 21 Things You Didn't Know About The Namesake, Nirali Magazine, March 2007

★ Trailer

★ Blog by lead actor ''Kal Penn''

★ Video interview with "The Namesake" director Mira Nair on ''Sidewalks Entertainment''