The Namesake

You know, if I am going to develop a reputation on this blog for watching immigrant stories (“The Basket” before, the Namesake here) I will just say “guilty as charged”. One of the most interesting parts of the American story for me is that people chose to come here, and continue to choose to come here, to start all over again. It’s lovely when those stories are captured in print, film, or other media, albeit from the children’s perspective, not their parents who made the decision the journey, yet don’t understand why that’s a cool story to hear about. (For the record, there’s a lot of 3rd-7th Americans who won’t move out of their borough. ‘Perhaps it is generational.]
On with the movie already!
“The Namesake” (2007)  is a lovely film by Mira Nair, who gave us “Monsoon Wedding” in 2001, and most recently, “Amelia”.  “The Namesake” is based on a book (2004) by the same name written by Indian-American Jhumpa Lahiri, who has written several works on the Indian-American experience in the States.

The story centers around the Ganguli family–father Ashoke (Irrfan Khan), mother Ashima (Tabu), and their two Indian American children–Nikhil Gogol (Kal Penn) and Sonia (Sahira Nair). I will say this film doesn’t really let you in any one character’s head, you watch how things unfold among 3 generations.

When the film opens, Ashoke is riding on a crowded train after visiting family. He is reading his favorite author, Russian Nicolai Gogol when he is interrupted. An older man standing nearby advises him to travel. As the man takes a swig of his flask,  the train has a major accident. Ashoke thankfully survives, but his life is still changed from that incident. He goes on to marry  the lovely singer Ashima through an arranged marriage, and they move to the States–Cambridge, MA to be exact. Gradually they make  friends among other Bengalis in America, but it takes awhile. Ashima struggles with acclimating as a housewife, while Ashoke fares better, going to work every day and interacting with native Americans.

When their first child is born, there is controversy over what his name should be. Ashima wants a proper “good” name, Ashoke wants to name the boy Nicolai Gogol after his favorite author. Until the child is 6, he goes by “Gogol”. At 6, he is formally  named Nikhil, but will be referred to as Gogol for the rest of his life.  The name games and questions about what exactly a name means don’t stop for Gogol, though. In a few years, he is a rebellious teen just wanting to fit in here in the States. He thwarts his Indianness and rebels against his parents at all cost.  When his father tries to tell him the story of his name, Gogol is disinterested, tells his dad he already knows this, or has already heard it before.  Gogol goes to college, starts going by his first name as “Nick”, and dates a beautiful white blonde named Maxine (Jacinda Barrett).  Nick chooses to celebrate his birthday with Maxine and her family versus his own, but then a fateful phone call arrives.

It changes everything for Gogol.

That’s all I will say since the point is to see the film yourself.

TRIVIA:  It’s ironic Kal Penn was chosen to play Nikhil Gogol, because he changed his own name to get more roles in Hollywood. ‘Knowing Hollywood, this is nothing new for an actor to do—Italians have done it, Jewish people have done it, Germans have done it, just to name a few. ( ‘Really, Google real names of your fave black and white glam 40s-50s stars—none of them used the name on their birth certificate if it didn’t project the personality they were going for: Bob Hope, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Peter Lawford, Natalie Wood,  Mel Brooks) And yours truly thought up several pen names for her own work because she has an awkward-looking,  “has to be ‘demo-pronounced’  ” last name.
The Namesake http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433416/quotes

Monsoon Wedding http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265343/

Mira Nair  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0619762/

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