The Namesake (2006)

(This is a mini-review of a movie I watched months ago.)

Kal Penn is more than just Kumar from the Harold & Kumar films, and Indian director Mira Nair is more than just one of the rare club of women working in feature films. It turns out that Penn is a competent dramatic actor (his work on the TV show "House" reflects this as well), and Nair is a director with a vision.

THE NAMESAKE, based on the Jhumpa Lahiri novel, tells the story of Gogol, an American born to Indian immigrants, who is caught in the middle between the traditions of New York and those of India. He particularly throws his family for a loop when he falls in love with an American girl.

A quiet and quietly moving film, THE NAMESAKE, thanks to Nair's own heritage, is a great way for Americans to understand a little bit about the culture and beliefs of Indian families who live here. I teach in a school where the Indian population is one of our largest minorities (if not the largest), and while I've tasted a lot of the food at parties I've been to, I didn't necessarily understand the culture. THE NAMESAKE is a nice introduction to that. It's a brilliantly colorful film (one of Nair's authorial trademarks), and a film that belongs in the canon of classic immigration stories with the likes of "In America" and "Far and Away" (just to name a few recent examples).

Filled with compassion and intelligence, THE NAMESAKE is an excellent little film.

3.5 out of 4