Film Reviews

The Namesake

• Rating:
• Director: Mira Nair
• Starring: Irfan Khan
• Details: India US 122mins (12A).

It's hard not to like The Namesake, an episodic drama that traces the lives of one Indian family through two generations on American soil. Kicking off in 1974, bookworm Ashoke Ganguli (Khan) survives a devastating train crash but remembers the last thing a fellow passenger told him: "See the world - you will never forget it." Ashoke takes off for America but returns to Calcutta for his arranged marriage to the beautiful Ashima (Tabu) before relocating back to New York. There they have two children, including Gogol (Penn), named after Ashoke's favourite writer Nikolai Gogol. Gogol resents his name and he rebels against his parents' traditional values by falling in love with Maxine (Barrett). Littered with short, tight scenes, The Namesake is a slow-moving, quiet film and, even though it jumps ahead months and then years, the laidback pace never wavers. The burgeoning relationships are treated gently and Nair, although veers over into sentimentality from time to time, never allows herself to fully embrace soppiness - and this is the film's most positive aspect. Khan, Tabu and Penn are equally flawless in their roles and inhabit their characters with a tender confidence. Penn in particular may have saved himself from future Van Wilder and Harold And Kumar roles with this performance. Nair, adapting Jhahumpa Lahiri's novel, could have shaved the last half-hour off Sooni Taraporevala's script, however, as the once-endearing episodic nature tends to drag towards the end.

Review by Gavin Burke