The Namesake - the movie!

New-South-Welshman

Get released in Australia on the 5th April. (Note is down, Aussie movie-goers) So just another few weeks to go. Really eager to watch it, as I loved the book.

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sam371

Hello IMers,

Anyone here seen this movie yet? If so, would you mind posting a quick review? I have read the generally positive reviews on this movie but a lot of times these reviewers/critics are way off.

Thanks in advance.

Merchant

If anybody in NYC wants to hear Mira talk about the movie, here's a free op:

South Asian Journalists Association, New York Chapter
presents:

A Conversation with Mira Nair, director of "The Namesake," playing in NYC and five other cities now - opening across the country over the next two weeks.

Friday, March 16, 2007
5:45-7:15 pm
Columbia Journalism School
116th St & Broadway, room 607B
Subway: #1 to 116th St/Columbia University
Ask for J-school when you enter the main campus

5:45-6:15: Networking
6:15-7:15: A conversation with Mira Nair, moderated by Aseem Chhabra + your Q&A
No charge. No RSVP required.

Mira Nair has been doing a lot of events around her highly-acclaimed new movie, but SAJA has asked her to a quieter event for us on Friday night. All are welcome. No charge. She does have to leave at 7:15, so please be on time. We will also be raffling copies a coffee-table movie about the book as well as its soundtrack - we'll get Mira to sign them.

Sama

it opened yesterday in the Chicago area....an area of over 6,000,000 people, an area with the largest number of Indian residents in North America (or at least one of the areas)...AND IT'S ONLY IN TWO THEATERS!!

what's up with that?!? I opened the paper to the movie section yesterday, hoping to see it this weekend, and saw that the two theaters it's in are both about 50 miles from my house, an hour drive away on a good traffic day....

BTW, the Chicago Tribune movie critic gave it 4 stars....

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sama: Pali/Sanskrit: that state of consciousness which reflects neither attachment nor aversion

docgirl2005

I saw the Namesake last night in Philadelphia. Beautiful movie, awesome, I felt like calling my parents afterwards! I heard that is what happens after watching it--all the people calling their parents. Lots of tears and laughter too. Breathtaking Kolkata scenery. New York winters reminded me of my childhood. The scene (in the trailer) with child Kal Penn and Tabu walking a stroller (with his sister) reminded me of our days in Staten Island and Queens as new immigrants. Very emotional the sacrificies that generation made for us and to see them on screen was great.

This story is about 2nd generation American desis and their immigrant parents! Irfan Khan deserves an Oscar nod for this one. His expressions are so subtle and priceless. Tabu is awesome too and watching them both together--sigh, neither said a word but the love and chemistry between Ashima and Ashok is displayed without awkwardness with ease...Kal Penn does a wonderful job too compared to his other comedy stoner movies we see him in.

I can sit and watch Tabu and Irfan Khan all day in those roles.
The ending was a bit dragged out though, I saw people getting up to leave but the movie wasnt quite over yet. Maybe 10 minutes shorter...or maybe they should be more patient

I give this movie 4 stars! Some complained it was too cheesy and dramatic...nope I think it wasnt at all. Just watch it!

bijapuri

too cheesy and dramatic? an Indian movie, an Indian book?

they must be new!

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Merchant

If you haven't seen Mira Nair's "The Namesake," do yourself a favor and see it this weekend. It's been showing in New York for last two weeks and opened nationally this past weekend, so it's probably playing where you are. It just set the record as the all-time biggest movie at New York's Paris Theater, one of the city's top art houses, and when I saw it on Saturday (in the din of Guinness-saturated St. Patrick's parade confusion), the line stretched down the block.

There are lots of reviews of out there, most of them very positive. But audience reactions have been superlative--people have really fallen in love with this thing, Indians and non-Indians.

Here are a few tidbits I gleaned from Mira's talk at Columbia University last week--

She made The Namesake in much the same way as Monsoon Wedding, shooting quickly and drawing on all the resources of her extended community. Most of the extras and people in the party scenes are friends and family. In the scene in The Namesake when Gogol's parents bring him home from the hospital for his naming ceremony, all those people in the shot are Jhumpa Lahiri's (the author of the novel) family, and the baby is Jhumpa's real baby (you can see Jhumpa in there, too).

Mira had been offered the chance to direct one of the Harry Potter movies, but she turned it down to work on The Namesake, something she wanted to do after reading the novel.

It was all shot on film, not digital ("I'm in love with celluloid," she said).

She had never seen any of Kal Penn's movies and didn't know anything about him, until her teenage son showed her some clips on the Internet and convinced her to cast him.

Anyway, go see the movie!

Sama

merchant, I merged your thread with the one that already existed....

it is only in two theaters in the entire Chicago area, but it will move out to the boonies where I live on 3/30....yay!

tacita

another film note, inasmuch as someone asked about scenes from india. yes, there are great shots of calcutta, and nair seamlessly and elegantly interwove the alternating scenes of both countries.

btw, i'd be interested in hearing not just from ravers, but from anyone who doesn't like the film, and why. my neighbors saw it last weekend. one thought it was ho-hum, and the other aggressively disliked it. when i asked him why, he said it was "all about a group of people's own little problems...nothing happened." when i observed that it was a universal story of immigration, he retorted "but there was nothing about visas, or immigration issues...and the life they had in calcutta seemed very nice...why did they come here?"

i thought to myself, in exactly which universe are complex issues of cultural identity "little"? hmmmmm.....either he saw a different film or....he saw a "different" film. someone else i spoke with said the film moved too slowly. by contrast, i found it fully engrossing. but i suppose the subjectivity of film is part of what makes it so interesting.

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capt_mahajan

Dunno if I will like the film, since I don't see many and avoid seeing films (or reading books) which seem to be made mainly for a western/non resident Indian audience. I find them usually boring and trite.

Maybe I miss a good film once in a while this way, but I don't have to walk out of many

tacita

i thought the screenplay and nair's direction did a pretty good job of avoiding "trite." the film can be credited for it's subtlety, especially compared with hollywood goo. (though that's not saying much overall, i concede.) the film was definitely more elegant than i'd expected.

well, captain, if you DO see it, yours will be a review in which i'm most interested.

capt_mahajan

At the risk of getting beaten up, I found Salaam Bombay contrived and predictable.

And hey, Hollywood goo has its counterpart in India too.. Bollywood goo. And I would put Salaam Bombay way ahead of that.

crvlvr

I am not a fan of Mira Nair's movies either. Mississippi Masala was the first and last movie that I liked (and that may have been due to Denzil Washington's performance). Kama Sutra was a joke, Monsoon Wedding a copout and Vanity Fair, boring.

Now IMDB indicates that she will be directing Shantaram.. Oh lord!

I'll wait for the Namesake DVD to come out.

(covers head waiting to be beaten up along with the Capt)

tacita

for what it's worth contextually, i hated mississippi masala, loved salaam bombay, and merely liked monsoon wedding (as harmless fun).

not to worry - no beatings about the head and shoulders here. movies, like any art, are entirely too subjective.

capt_mahajan

I saw Salaam Bombay, and stopped.

Because you don't learn anything the second time you are kicked by a mule