SAPNA SAMANT relates her own migrant experience to Mira Nair’s The Namesake, the story of an Indian family who relocate to America, adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel. It opens the Auckland and Wellington legs of this year’s World Cinema Showcase.


I DIDN’T ENJOY The Interpretor of Maladies. I was sceptical about The Namesake. Another non-resident Indian writing about displacement and migration and cultural confusion, I thought. More ABCD (American Born Confused Desi) stuff! I was wrong. Jhumpa Lahiri had me glued to the pages, tissues in hand every time my tears blurred the print. It was real bhel* made from rice krispies. My five years in New Zealand condensed into the lives of Ashima, Ashoke and Gogol. Identity through the name; culture defined through personal encounters and a human story centuries old.

Mira Nair’s new film The Namesake, based on the book, is a similar experience.

The film begins in Calcutta in the 1970s. A chaotic urban landscape, the river Ganga, colourful Calcutta cottons, graceful old buildings and Ashima (Tabu) asked to see Ashoke Ganguli (Irrfan Khan), straight from America. A simple marriage ceremony later both are transported to cold New York where there is 24-hour gas supply, separate taps for hot and cold water and laundrettes for washing clothes. Ashima and Ashoke begin their life gently discovering each other, gradually adjusting to the alien country and accumulating Bengali friends on the way to suburbia. It is the era of handwritten posted letters and trunk calls. So when their first born has to be named before leaving the hospital and the letter with the approved ‘good name’ does not arrive from India, Ashima and Ashoke make do with the ‘pet name’ Gogol.

It was a train accident that brought Ashoke to America, an accident in which Nikolai Gogol, the weird, melancholy Russian writer, saved his life. A name that needs to be remembered and revered, the Gangulis feel. But Gogol (Kalpen Modi aka Kal Pen) has other ideas. He formalises his good name to Nikhil, completely assimilates within American life and even acquires a WASP girlfriend, Maxine (Jacinda Barrett). Until Ashoke dies. Gogol then meets and marries Moushumi (Zuleikha Robinson), the rebellious, Francophile daughter of Bengali family friends. The marriage is doomed but Gogol finally sees where he comes from.

It is hard to adapt books into screenplays. Sooni Taraporevala does her best. While it mostly flows there are moments when the emotions from the book have not translated to the screen. (e.g. in the scene where Moushumi and Gogol party with American friends and discuss baby names, Gogol’s discomfort does not come through, while neither does the classic attitude of modern, married, middleclass couples.) But I am nitpicking.

The Namesake is gorgeously shot and told. There is not a moment of exoticism or self-conscious ‘us-traditional-but-modern-Indians’ Bollywoodisms. No virgin Indian girls and testosterone-peaked Indian men. No India calling. No stereotypes or rigid tradition bound parents. Ashoke and Ashima are intellectuals who understand how life changes and let their children live and learn.

The casting is perfect. After Maqbool, Tabu and Irrfan Khan bring their combined magic to the screen again, adding immense depth to their roles. Zuleikha Robinson oozes sexuality as the sensual, complicated Moushumi. Jacinda Barrett shows the right amount of perplexity at ‘foreign’ traditions. This is a breakout role for Kal Pen. From the gagging corn in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle to the maturity of Gogol Ganguli it is good to see a non-resident Indian actor play characters true to his environment instead of being a Bollywood macho man.

Nitin Sawhney’s score enhances every scene and emotion. Check out his version of Yeh Mera Deewanapan Hai... originally sung by Mukesh for Dilip Kumar in the film Yahudi (1958).

The Namesake is a tale about middle class migration, of loss, cultural memories and negotiations, family ties and growing up. Any one with a migrant experience can relate to it.

Dr. Sapna Samant is director of Holy Cow Media, and is actively involved in radio and writing.