The Namesake

This one is going to be a joint review of both the book by Jhumpa Lahiri, as well as the movie. I had read the book quite a while ago, and hence when I watched the movie yesterday, the details of the book were not very clear in my head. After I watched the movie, I went back and read the book again.

Jhumpa Lahiri has done a lovely job with The Namesake. I guess a lot of the material of the book has been derived from her own experiences as an ex-pat Bengali. This makes the book extremely authentic, and fun to read. I am not extremely fond of her particular writing style, but she does have an excellent story to tell. She paces the book really well, and does a great job with character development. I also love the way she concentrates on the tiny details. Over all, The Namesake is a book I would recommend to everyone to read, not only because it has a great story, but also because it paints an interesting picture of Indians in America.

As far as Mira Nair's adaptation of The Namesake is concerned, I found the movie delightful, charming as well as poignant. Tabu has done a great job as Ashima, while Irfan Khan shines as Ashok. I was also really surprised by the depth displayed by Kal Penn. I had only seen him in White Castle before, which was a completely different kind of movie. The movie has been touchingly filmed, and although it deviates a tiny bit in the details sometimes from the book, and leaves out quite a few of them, it is complete even if watched by itself. The scene that literally brought tears to my eyes was the scene in which Gogol visits his dad's apartment in Cleveland, and steps into his Dad's shoes. In all, excellent movie to watch.