''The Namesake'' is a 2006

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the i ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Mira Nair Mira Nair (born 15 October 1957) is an Indian-American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences on Indian society, whether in the economic, social or cultural spher ...

and written by Sooni Taraporevala based on the novel '' The Namesake'' by

Jhumpa Lahiri Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" LahiriMinzesheimer, Bob ''USA Today'', August 19, 2003. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. (born July 11, 1967) is an American author known for her short stories, novels and essays in English, and, more recently, in Italia ...

. It stars

Kal Penn Kalpen Suresh Modi (born April 23, 1977), known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, academic lecturer, and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration. As an actor, he is known for his role portrayi ...

, Tabu,

Irrfan Khan Irrfan Khan () (born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan; 7 January 196729 April 2020), also known simply as Irrfan, was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in In ...

and Sahira Nair. The film was produced by

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and Japanese studios. The film was released in the United States on 9 March 2007, following screenings at film festivals in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. ''The Namesake'' received positive reviews from American critics.

Plot

''The Namesake'' depicts the struggles of Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli (

and Tabu), first-generation immigrants from the

East India East India is a region of India consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The region roughly corresponds to the historical region of Magad ...

n state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

to the United States, and their American-born children Gogol (

) and Sonia (Sahira Nair). The film takes place primarily in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, and suburbs of New York City. The story begins as Ashoke and Ashima leave Calcutta and settle in New York City. Through a series of miscues, their son's nickname, Gogol (named after Russian author

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

), becomes his official birth name, an event which will shape many aspects of his life. The story chronicles Gogol's cross-cultural experiences and his exploration of his Indian heritage, as the story shifts between the United States and India. Gogol becomes a lazy, pot-smoking teenager indifferent to his cultural background. He resents many of the customs and traditions his family upholds and doesn't understand his parents. After a summer trip to India before starting college at Yale, Gogol starts opening up to his culture and becomes more accepting of it. After college, Gogol uses his "good name" Nikhil (later shortened to Nick). He works as an architect and dates Maxine (

Jacinda Barrett Jacinda Barrett (born 2 August 1972) is an Australian actress and former model. She first became known to audiences as a cast member on '' The Real World: London'' (1995) before appearing in films such as '' The Human Stain'' (2003), '' Bridget ...

), a white American woman from a wealthy background, who is clueless about their cultural differences. Gogol falls in love with Maxine and introduces her to his parents, who struggle to understand his modern, American perspectives on dating, marriage and love. They are hesitant and guarded when meeting her. Gogol gets along with Maxine's family and feels closer to them than he does his own family. Before he goes to Ohio for a teaching apprenticeship, Ashoke tells Gogol the story of how he came up with his name. Shortly after, while Gogol is on vacation with Maxine's family, Ashoke dies. Grieving, Gogol tries to be more like what he thinks his parents want him to be and begins following cultural customs more closely. He grows distant from Maxine and eventually breaks up with her. Gogol rekindles a friendship with Moushumi (

Zuleikha Robinson Zuleikha Robinson (born 29 June 1977) is a British actress. She first came to attention as Yves Adele Harlow, a mysterious thief on the 2001 series ''The Lone Gunmen''. She has appeared in the films '' Hidalgo'' (2004), ''The Merchant of Venice ...

), the daughter of family friends. They begin dating and soon after get married. However, the marriage is short-lived as Moushumi, bored with being a wife, starts having an affair with an old boyfriend from Paris. Gogol divorces her, while Ashima blames herself for pressuring Gogol to marry a fellow Bengali. Gogol returns home to help Ashima pack the house when he finds the book Ashoke gave him as a graduation present. Searching for comfort, and accepting his new life alone, Gogol finally reads the stories written by his namesake on the train home. As well as depicting Gogol/Nikhil's experiences, the film describes the courtship and marriage of Ashima and Ashoke, and the effect on the family from Ashoke's early death from a massive heart attack. Through experiencing his father's funeral rites on the banks of the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

, Gogol begins to appreciate Indian culture. Ashima's decision to move on with her life, selling the suburban family home and returning to Calcutta for part of each year, unifies and ends the story.

Cast

as Nikhil "Gogol" Ganguli **Soham Chatterjee as child Gogol aged 4 years * Tabu as Ashima Ganguli *

as Ashoke Ganguli *Sahira Nair as Sonia Ganguli *

as Maxine Ratcliffe *

Sebastian Roché Sebastian Roché (born 4 August 1964) is a French-American actor. He is known for his roles as Kurt Mendel in ''Odyssey 5'', Jerry Jacks in ''General Hospital'', Thomas Jerome Newton in ''Fringe'', Balthazar in ''Supernatural'', Mikael in both ...

as Chris *

Linus Roache Linus William Roache (born 1 February 1964) is a British actor. He is known for playing Executive ADA Michael Cutter in the NBC dramas ''Law & Order'' (2008–2010) and '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (2011–2012). More recently, Roach ...

as Mr Lawson (Gogol's teacher) *

Glenne Headly Glenne Aimee Headly (March 13, 1955 – June 8, 2017) was an American actress. She was widely known for her roles in '' Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'', ''Dick Tracy'', and '' Mr. Holland's Opus''. Headly received a Theatre World Award and four Joseph ...

as Lydia *

as Moushumi Majumdar *

Ruma Guha Thakurta Ruma Guha Thakurta (21 November 1934 – 3 June 2019) was an Indian actress and singer primarily associated with Bengali language films. She founded Calcutta Youth Choir in 1958. Early life Ruma Guha Thakurta was born on 3 November 1934 to ...

as Ashoke's mother *

Sabyasachi Chakrabarty Sabyasachi Chakrabarty is an Indian actor of theatre, films and television. He is best known for portraying iconic Bengali detective characters, Feluda, and Kakababu. Personal life His parents, Jagadish Chandra Chakrabarty and Monica Chakrabar ...

as Ashima's father *

Supriya Devi Supriya Devi (Supriya Choudhury; 8 January 1933 – 26 January 2018) was an Indian actress who is known for her work in Bengali cinema for more than 50 years. She is best known for her portrayal of Neeta in Ritwik Ghatak's Bengali film '' Megh ...

as Ashima's grandmother *Jagannath Guha as Ghosh *Sukanya Chakraborty as Rini *

Tanushree Shankar Tanushree Shankar (born 16 March 1956) is an Indian dancer and choreographer. She is based in Kolkata, India. She was a leading dancer of the Ananda Shankar Centre for Performing Arts in the 1970s and 1980s. She also acted in various films, ...

as Ashima's mother *Tamal Roy Choudhury as Ashoke's father *

as Jhumpa Mashi The film has cameo appearances by actor

Samrat Chakrabarti Samrat Chakrabarti (born 22 August 1975) is a British-American film actor and musician of Indian descent. Early life Born in London to Indian Hindu Bengali immigrant parents from Kolkata. He performed in Indian community functions in Boston ...

, academic

Partha Chatterjee Partha ( sa, pārtha) may refer to: * Partha, an epithet of Arjuna Arjuna (Sanskrit: अर्जुन, ), also known as Partha and Dhananjaya, is a character in several ancient Hindu texts, and specifically one of the major characters of t ...

and visual artist

Naeem Mohaiemen Naeem Mohaiemen (born 1969) uses film, photography, installation, and essays to research South Asia's postcolonial markers (the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 and the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971). His projects on the 1970s revolutionary l ...

Development

Initially

Rani Mukerji Rani Mukerji (pronounced ; born 21 March 1978) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. Noted for her versatility, she is the recipient of multiple accolades, including seven Filmfare Awards. Mukerji has featured in listings of the high ...

was considered for the principal lead, but due to scheduling conflicts, the role went to Tabu. Kal Penn was recommended for the movie by

John Cho John Cho (born Cho Yo-Han; June 16, 1972) is an American actor known for his roles as Harold Lee in the '' Harold & Kumar'' films, and Hikaru Sulu in the ''Star Trek'' rebooted film series. Early in his career, Cho also starred in the Asian A ...

and strongly requested by Nair's son, who was a fan of Penn in

Harold and Kumar ''Harold & Kumar'' is the name of a series of American films created by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. Beginning with ''Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle'' (2004), and followed by ''Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay'' (2008) and ''A ...

Soundtrack

The soundtrack has varied music: Indian, Anglo-Indian (by

Nitin Sawhney Nitin Sawhney , D.Mus (; born 1964) is a British musician, producer and composer. A recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, among multiple international awards throughout his career. Sawhney's work combines Asian a ...

, influenced by

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North In ...

's music for Pather Panchali), and a French piece. One

British Indian British Indians are citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) whose ancestral roots are from India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian origin as well as Indians who have migrated to the UK. Today, Indians comprise about 1.4 mil ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

piece is State of Bengal's "IC408." The ringtone from Moushumi's mobile phone is the song "Riviera Rendezvous" by Ursula 1000 from the album ''Kinda' Kinky''; this is the same song that is played when Gogol and Moushumi first sleep together. The Indian classical pieces (performed on screen by Tabu) were sung by

Mitali Banerjee Bhawmik Mitali Banerjee Bhawmik is an exponent of Hindustani classical vocal music. Early life Mitali Banerjee Bhawmik was born in Nagaon, Assam. She was introduced to Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the classical music ...

, a

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

-based musician.

Critical reception

The film received favorable reviews from critics. As of 23 February 2009, the review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported that 86% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 126 reviews.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reported the film had an average score of 82 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Top ten lists

The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007. *6th - Peter Rainer, ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' *8th - Carrie Rickey, ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pen ...

'' *8th - Claudia Puig, ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' *9th - James Berardinelli, ReelViews

Awards and nominations

*Won - Love is Folly International Film Festival (

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

) - "Golden Aphrodite" -

*Nominated - Casting Society of America - "Best Feature Film Casting" - Cindy Tolan *Nominated - Gotham Awards 2007 - "Best Film" -

& Lydia Dean Pilcher *Nominated -

Independent Spirit Award The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glas ...

- "Best Supporting Male" -

References

External links

*
Official trailer
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Namesake, The 2006 films 2006 drama films Adultery in films American drama films Indian drama films Indian-American films English-language Indian films English-language Japanese films Japanese drama films Films about immigration to the United States Films based on American novels Films based on Indian novels Films directed by Mira Nair Films set in Kolkata Films set in New York City Films shot in India Films shot in New York City Films shot in Kolkata Fox Searchlight Pictures films UTV Motion Pictures films Asian-American drama films Mirabai Films films 2000s American films 2006 independent films 2000s Japanese films