Namesake

That one scene did it….towards the end of the film when Ashoke walks with his 4 year old along the rocky ridge that invades out into the raucous ocean and says “Remember this moment for a long long time Gogol, that we had walked out to a place where the land had ended and we had nowhere to go” The angst captured in that shot welled up my eyes. When they are gone, we usually remember our parents from such ideal snapshots of life, the words that they had spoken on the side, that comment made within the moribund household setting, but that which brings with them a flood of memories which inundates you for the rest of your life. Knowing her oeuvre, this form of cinematic magic is not unexpected from Mira Nair.

Namesake is an episodic canvas that beyond all, tries to recreate the strands that tie us to our roots and home. Although the subject in this particular case is of a Bengali family struggling to find its moorings in the America of the 70’s and 80’s, the story itself is universal. But no tale is complete without a set of characters that nuanced and scripted out eminently. Ashima (Tabu), the typical Bengali girl in from a culture conscious Kolkata household of the 60’s, who simply waltzes into a marriage because she like her prospective groom’s shoes. Ashoke (Irfan Khan) the studious, gentle and lost-in-the-worlds husband who together with his wife built this poignant strand of understanding between themselves and who, as a father could not be more expressive than being able to present his son with a book on Grad day. This is too close to life. We have seen and known so many people, parents of our friends and relatives, who continue to be that invisible rock without anyone ever noticing it. Ashoke’s exit midway in the film, was a script written by himself, understated, very much the way he lived his life. The subsequent turmoil tit wrecks on the Ganguli’s and the evolution of Gogol (Kal Penn) as a person is captured immaculately. The scene in which Gogol visits his fathers pad in Ohio after his death and sees the bed undone, the way it was when he left it for ever, is a blowout. The old memories come flooding by, this man who has given you this world has after all just lived like a shadow and for the last proof of his existence you have the bed which could still have that residual warmth, that you never could partake during his lifetime….....

If to write a book, Jhumpa Lahiri has woven a surfeit of emotions into words, Mira Nair has accomplished the almost impossible task of bringing the characters to life and making them live their parts. “Gone with the wind” on celluloid does not look as impressive as the book itself, because it is this sense of empathy stirred up by cinematic elements, it lacks. In this Mira Nair/Jhumpa Lahiri epic, if the book weaves it, the movie creates it.

Jarring Notes: Why did Gogol and Moushumi (Zuleikha Robinson) break-out into an impromptu jig during their Suhaag Raat?

A must watch. Brilliant performances from the cast Tabu, Irfan Khan, Kal Penn (he should be getting more than just ethnic two bit Hollywood roles to play now), Zuelikha Robinson and Jacinda Barrett.