The Namesake

India, United States

2006

122 Min

Color

1.85:1

Bengali, French, Hindi, English

Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
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EXEC Yasushi Kotani, Ronnie Screwvala, Taizo Son

PROD Lydia Dean Pilcher, Mira Nair

SCR Sooni Taraporevala, Jhumpa Lahiri

CAST Tabu, Irrfan Khan, Kal Penn, Jacinda Barrett, Zuleikha Robinson, Brooke Smith, Sahira Nair, Jagannath Guha, Ruma Guha Thakurta, Sandip Deb, Sukanya, Linus Roache, Glenne Headly, Daniel Gerroll, Sebastian Roché

MUSIC Nitin Sawhney

Telluride, London (Film on the Square), Toronto (Special Presentations)

Synopsis

While traveling by train to visit his grandfather in Jamshedpur, Calcutta born, Bengali-speaking Ashoke Ganguli meets with fellow-traveler, Ghosh, who impresses upon him to travel, while Ashoke is deep into a book authored by Nicholai Gogol. The train meets with an accident, and after recuperating, Ashoke re-locates to America, settles down, returns home in 1977 to get married to aspiring singer, Ashima, and returns home to New York. Shortly thereafter they become parents of a boy, who they initially name Gogol, and a few years later both give birth to Sonia. The family then buy their own house in the suburbs and travel to India for the first time after their marriage. The second time they travel to India is when Gogol and Sonia are in their late teens, and after a memorable visit to Kolkata and then to the Taj Mahal, they return home. Gogol falls in love with Maxine Ratliff and moves in with her family, while Ashoke spends time traveling, and Sonia moves to California, leaving Ashima all her by herself. The Ganguli family will be destined to travel to India again soon – this time under very different circumstances – and after all have endured life-changing events. –IMDb

Director

Mira Nair

The highly acclaimed director from India, Mira Nair leapt into the world’s spotlight with her film Salaam, Bombay! This film is considered by many to be her best work although she may be better known for the controversial subject matter of her latest film Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love.

Mira Nair was born in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa to a civil servant in 1957. She went on to attend the University of New Delhi where she studied Sociology and Theater. Dissatisfied with the quality of the education, she applied elsewhere. As result she came to Harvard in 1976 on full scholarship to continue studying Sociology. While at Harvard her focus drifted to documentary film. She describes documentary as “a marriage of my interests in the visual arts, theatre, and life as it is lived”.

Mira’s first film was Jama Masjid Street Journal which was also her Master’s thesis project. This film explores the life of a traditional Muslim community from the Western perspective… read more