The Namesake

Another overflow crowd at the Uptown Cinema! "The Namesake" is Mira Nair's latest offering ("Monsoon Wedding," "Bend It Like Beckham" and "Vanity Fair") and her capable direction is evident once more.

Her unlikely choice for the juvenile lead is a young man named Kal Penn, who I only know of as being in "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," which I have so far, avoided seeing. That he does so well in this movie means either that I have misjudged his abilities or that Nair is a terrific director. I suspect it is a bit of both...

If you have read the book, which I have not, you may already know that the movie is as much about the wife and mother in this story, as it is about the young man who is her son. His father, years ago, was in a near-fatal train crash in his native India. He was reading his favorite Russian author, Nikolai Gogol, at the time. As a result of this apocalyptic event, he throws caution to the wind and moves to the United States, where he starts to build a new life. When the time comes for him to marry, he, like most people of Indian heritage at the time, engineers an arranged marriage with a lovely young woman from his native Bengal. She marries him, knowing they will live in New York, far from friends and family.

No one does culture clash with such a deft touch. Nair uses humor to illustrate how an action we here in America take for granted, can be seen as a gross violation of etiquette in another culture. The actors who play the first generation immigrants (Tabu, a lovely actress is the mother, and Irrfan Khan is the father), do a surprisingly good job of aging over the twenty years during which we follow their lives. Their two children never doubt their parents' love and support, although Gogol (yes, we know why he was given that name) chooses to change his first name to Nick ("Nikolai"...get it?) to avoid having to explain it to his college chums. There is humor and poignancy sprinkled throughout; you'll love seeing the mother driving in a busy city street, and the simple action of trying on someone else's shoes is effective both times it is used...trust me!

We come to learn that Gogol's constant theme in his books and stories were of being a stranger in a strange land, never quite fitting in, adapting to a new and different culture. Here, Mira Nair makes it a pleasure.