The Namesake
Dir.: Mira Nair
Cast: Kal Penn (Gogol/Nikhil), Tabu (Ashima), Irrfan Khan (Ashoke), Jacinda Berret (Maxine), Sahira Nair (Sonia)
Script: Sooni Taraporevala
Year: 2007
Length: 2hrs. 2 min
Verdict: SEE IT
Rating: PG-13 (Hmmm... A borderline PG-13. There's some stuff, but not too much)
Faithfulness Scale: 68% (Not too much missing, but not completely faithful)
Really good adaptation! Like the scale shows, not INCREDIBLY faithful text-wise, but spirit-wise, it's a completely faithful adaptation. Plus, all the important scenes are there, which is a plus! :)
First of all, the movie is GORGEOUS. All those sweeping shots of Calcutta and New York just completely took me by surprise. So, I do give Mira Nair credit for that. It might look like the scenes from a travel documentary, but they are better than that. And I'm sorry everybody who thought Girl With a Pearl Earring was great, but the movie actually makes Calcutta an attractive place to visit!
Besides that, everyone did great in their roles. Kal Penn was amazing as Gogol/Nikhil (he's not as good as you can't imagine anyone else in the role, but he's still really good). MY only problem with him, is that he's not really good to play a teenager. He sort of plays it off as dumb (Maybe he missed playing Harold in Harold and Kumar or something.) But other than that, when he played Gogol age 20-25, he did give Gogol a great emotional range. Irrfran Kahn and Tabu are wonderful playing the parents, and the supporting roles were good too. What's most important in the acting is that they stayed true to the spirit of the book, which is really important if you're not going to make it completely faithful. All the actors are very touching in these roles which what made them all work for me.
I acutally preferred the way the movie started out; with the parents in India, meeting each other for the first time, the accident, and the aftermath of moviing to America. The book was told in flashbacks, which I really enjoyed, but sometimes seemed too long and take up too much room. With the flashbacks told first, it started off on the right pace in chronological order, without the need to replay them througouht the movie. Which is a good thing, because, this movie is WAAAY too long at 2hrs and 2min. It had to shave off at least 30 minutes. It's nice to see Indian lifestyles vrs. the American lifestyle, but the scenes just go on too long. However, this is a really faithful adaptation, it will please fans, it will touch people, and it's a good-hearted adaptation. I LOVED it!
The Namesake
By: Jhumpa Lahiri
Setting: India, New England and New York, 1968-1999
Format: 291 pgs.
Verdict: READ IT
Rated: PG-13 (You know, adults doing adult things. Nothing graphic though!)
The Namesake is everything you'd hear it being; touching, warm and all those delicious words. However, it dosen't have a REAL conflict, a REAL suspensful plot. It's just the story about Gogol Ganguli, the son of Bengali immigrants who moved to America a year after their arranged marriage. Gogol has been named after his father's favorite author, Nikolai Gogol, because his great-grandmother couldn't fufill the job of naming her great-grandson. At first, Gogol dosen't mind his name. That is, until his teen year until he really starts to find it annoying because, who in the world would want to be named Gogol right? As Gogol matures and grows, goes to college, gets into relationships and marries, he casts off the name for Nikhil, his original birth name. The whole book goes through Gogol's maturity and thirty years of his life, and we're riding along on his journey of being accepted into American society as a new person.
Now of course, that's nothing incredibly exciting, and this is one of those books that could have been a terrible one if the execution is not properly done. But the thing is, this book is so well written, the characters so well sketched out, that it eventually was a sucess. Ashima, the mother, was the only one who got on my nerves sometimes, because in the beginning she whines and complains all the time. But she really becomes a real person on the page. I found myself relating a lot to Gogol/Nikhil, and caring for him, which is a must when you write a book like this. There is not one single character that I didn't like and didn't relate to, which is nice to see for a change.
Like always, there ARE love stories in this book. All of them very interesting. Each of Gogol/Nikhil's girlfriends are different (besides the fact that they all read and like to travel. Another reason why these characters as so relatable.) In that case, it's really hard to see who he will end up with or if he ends up with any of them. And each of them have different outcomes, so when I thought it was going to end one way, it didn't end the way I expected. Like life. :)
The writing in this book is the second best writing I've ever read in my life. It's part of what makes you hold on to the story when you have a plot such as this one. The writing style gives the book this mood that kept me holding on as the characters warm my heart. It's maybe not the BEST book I've ever read, but it is probably one of the best book I've read this year. READ IT. You'll be pleasantly surprised like I was. :)
