Cast: Kal Penn, Tabu, Irrfan Khan
Director: Mira Nair
Producer: Mira Nair, Lydia Dean Pilcher
Music Director: Nitin Sawhney
Cinematographer: Frederick Elmes
Mira Nair’s ‘The Namesake’ is based on Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri’s book ‘The Namesake’. The story belongs to two places at one time. Nair herself has visited this subject matter twice already, with Mississippi Masala and The Perez Family. This is also not the first time Nair has explored the dynamics of an Indian family; Monsoon Wedding still easily ranks as one of the best movies with a crisp storyline and clear thought making.
Ashima (Tabu) arrives from Calcutta with Ashoke Ganguli(Irfan Kahn), her husband by arranged marriage. Ashoke has been studying fiber optics at a New York City university from the past two years. Alone in a cold and strange city, Ashima pines for Calcutta and the company of her parents and close-knit extended family.
Shortly after Ashoke and Ashima give birth to their first child, a son, in a New York hospital, they are informed that the child must have a name before they are discharged. Because the name is traditionally decided by the maternal grandmother, who is living in India, Ashoke decides to give his son a temporary name, to be changed later, and names him “Gogol”.