Even those who long for one world may wish "The Namesake" would lighten up.Following one immigrant family across decades, "The Namesake" is an eventful yet overly familiar drama about homeland ties stretched by assimilation and repeated tragedies, and its cultural sensitivity extends only to Indians and Indian-Americans.
Screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala adroitly draws from Jhumpa Lahiri's sprawling novel, whose fans should be satisfied. Much detail is packed into the film, along with care and purposefulness.
Shot in India and the United States and performed in several languages, "The Namesake" is reverently staged by director Mira Nair ("Monsoon Wedding"). It's also a welcome dramatic turn for Kal Penn, a fine actor who's best known for broad comic roles in stoner flicks and the Houston-made comedy "Where's the Party, Yaar?"But his character is where "The Namesake" starts to fall apart.
His parents, a traditional Indian couple, moved from Calcutta to New York so Ashoke (Irfan Khan) could work in academia while wife Ashima (Tabu) kept house and had babies.While they remain rooted in ancestral customs, son Gogol (Penn) grows up to be a typical U.S. teen: nontraditional, self-absorbed and fretting about things like his unusual name, which came from his father's favorite Russian writer.
Much is made of that name as the film goes on — too much, given its mere symbolism. Gogol changes his name to Nick, studies architecture and finds romance with a young WASPy blonde.The film's strong implication is that his rebelliousness and need for freedom are lapses — that he should get with the program and adhere to his Indian heritage, even though he's American. When tragedy strikes, Penn is faced with repudiating a character he persuasively created.
"The Namesake" scorns Gogol's freedom to be his own man. He's portrayed as a frivolous traitor who embraces such things as the affluence of his girlfriend and her family, who are shown as caricatures of materialism and smugness. Her best friends are insensitive cynics. They're people, too, yet the film makes no effort to understand them — it just brands them.
That said, there's more love and heart in "The Namesake" than in many Hollywood dramas. I just wish the filmmakers had spread it around. Cross-cultural understanding should be a two-way street.