One of Lahiri's strengths is attention to detail revealed in a matter-of-fact style that doesn't belabor the obvious. Armchair criticism is easy, and perhaps more meaningful insight is gained by asking if the medium is effectively used to convey the story's ethos. I enjoyed the film but, as often is the case, I found it to fall short of the book, whose power made me an instant fan of Lahiri's (watch for a cameo appearance by her in the film as Aunt Jhumpa). How do the US-born children relate to India? Where is home for the parents and how do they stay in touch and perform their duties while geographically separated from their extended family? "The Namesake" is a story of the power of a name and of family the immigrant experience the search for love, context, and identity. Wittingly or not, he follows the advice to "play the field" but to reserve marriage for a woman of Bengali origin. The story follows Gogol/Nikhil as he goes to Yale University, is inspired to be an architect on a family trip to India when they visit the Taj Mahal, goes to graduate school and on to a job in New York City, and experiences several relationships. He legally changes his name at college to "Nikhil". As the boy grows, his name bothers him it is neither Indian nor American, nor even a first name. The "good name" that the great-grandmother mailed never arrives, so the name Gogol sticks. The name of the Russian writer occurs to Ashoke, and he assigns "pet name" Gogol. When Ashoke and Ashima's first child is born, they are surprised that they cannot leave the hospital without naming him they prefer to wait for the great-grandmother's suggestion. As a bachelor in India, Ashoke suffers in a train wreck, but his life is saved because, instead of sleeping on the nighttime journey, he had been reading "The Overcoat" by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol.
in the early 1960s (1970s in the film), their son Gogol (Kal Penn), and his younger sister Sonali/Sonia (Sahira Nair). The story is that of the Gangulis - Ashoke (Irfan Khan) and wife Ashima (Tabu), Kolkata (Calcutta) immigrants to the U.S. I don't know why, but the setting of the film version of the story is changed from Boston to New York and moved about a decade forward. Mumbai-based graduate of Harvard (where she met Nair) Sooni Taraporevala wrote the screenplay, as she also did on "Mississippi Masala" and "Salaam Bombay!" (incidentally, she is apparently directing her first film, based on her own screenplay, due to be released this spring). Readers may be familiar with Nair's films, including "Monsoon Wedding" (2001), "Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love" (1996), "Mississippi Masala" (1991), and Oscar-nominated "Salaam Bombay!" (1988) she is also in pre-production on a crime drama, "Shantaram", due in 2008. I was therefore excited when I heard that Mira Nair would be directing a film based on the novel. Lahiri was born in London to Bengali immigrants, raised in Rhode Island, and now lives in Brooklyn. rAjOo 2003 days after its publication, I could hardly put down Pulitzer-winning Jhumpa Lahiri's novel "The Namesake". The Ganguli family will be destined to travel to India again soon - this time under very different circumstances - and after all have endured life-changing events. Gogol falls in love with Maxine Ratliff and moves in with her family, while Ashoke spends time traveling, and Sonia moves to California, leaving Ashima all her by herself. The second time they travel to India is when Gogol and Sonia are in their late teens, and after a memorable visit to Kolkata and then to the Taj Mahal, they return home. The family then buy their own house in the suburbs and travel to India for the first time after their marriage. Shortly thereafter they become parents of a boy, who they initially name Gogol, and a few years later both give birth to Sonia. The train meets with an accident, and after recuperating, Ashoke re-locates to America, settles down, returns home in 1977 to get married to aspiring singer, Ashima, and returns home to New York. While traveling by train to visit his grandfather in Jamshedpur, Calcutta born, Bengali-speaking Ashoke Ganguli meets with fellow-traveler, Ghosh, who impresses upon him to travel, while Ashoke is deep into a book authored by Nicholai Gogol.
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