'The Namesake' wonderful but abrupt journey
By Erica Blocher, Staff Writer
May 19, 2007 | 8:40 p.m.
"We all came out of Gogal's overcoat." This is what Gogol Ganguli's father repeatedly tells him growing up. Gogol never fully understood his namesake nor the meaning of his father's words until he took his own journey.
Acclaimed director Mira Nair ("Bend It Like Beckham") brings us "The Namesake," based on the bestselling novel by Jhumpra Lahriri. However, "The Namesake" is far more in-depth and carries more emotion than "Beckham," as it shows Nair's craft to mold a beautiful story of one man discovering himself and his identity among two cultures.
Gogol (Kal Penn) is the oldest son of two Indian immigrants in New York City, Ashoke (Tabu) and Ashima (Irrfan Khan) Ganguli. The movie follows Ashoke, a professor, and his wife, Ashima, as they travel from India to America. The couple tries to adjust to American life and struggles to understand their "American" children, Gogol and their younger daughter Sonia (Sahira Nair), who are very different from them. As the movie progresses, the focus turns to young Gogol and his quest to create his own life and identity, separate from his parents'.
Gogol leads the life of the prodigal son — first betraying his parents in a sense, then eventually returning to them. As Gogol graduates from high school and prepares to begin his first year at Yale University, he petitions to change his name from Gogol to Nikolai, in which he can shorten to the American version of Nick.
"Can you imagine Gogol on a resume or a credit card?" Gogol says.
Ashima and Ashoke are none too happy about this proposal -- especially Ashoke. Gogol has yet to learn why his name is so important, and how its origin changed his father's life.
Gogol then goes to Yale, where he finds himself an American girlfriend, Maxine (Jacinda Barrett), and proceeds to go on vacations with her and her family, thus setting his family aside. Penn plays this role well -- that of the teenager with an attitude and a young man that just wants to fit in with his American peers.
Penn shows his deeper side as Gogol must deal with a sudden death in his family. Here, Penn loses the young boy with a chip on his shoulder and changes into a young man who slowly returns to his family, who now seem more valuable to him.
It is here that the two cultures collide -- the Gangulis have a traditional Bengali ceremony for the death, and Maxine looks terribly out of place in her black dress amid the stark white saris that the Bengali mourners wear. As Maxine presses Gogol to "get away" from it all, Gogol knows deep down that the relationship is not right.
After realizing that there is a cultural barrier that cannot be broken and accepting his heritage, Gogol also learns the incredible significance behind his namesake. Gogol's father tells Gogol that the name has had a special meaning to him after a tragedy he experienced before his son was born. He tells Gogol that "every day after that has been a gift."
The film ends with Gogol sitting on a train reading a book that inspired his father to name him, paralleling an event in his father's past. This ending leaves much to be desired, but overall the movie was a heart-wrenching journey.