- the NRI audience, ofcourse,
- those who travel across these countries and hence might be able to relate to the concept, and
- those who would like to travel the world without moving an inch (through the eyes of a fellow Indian ofcourse) – courtesy Nikolai Gogol
I spent a good part of this weekend watching two such movies – The Namesake and Namaste London. While I do not want to turn this into a full-fledged movie-review, I still felt compelled to put down a few lines.
The Namesake, as the name suggests and so do the credits, is said to be based on the book by the same name (uff.. too many names..) by Jhumpa Lahiri.
The book is quite brilliant. It convinced me that I cannot and will not let ANYONE spoil the life of my child by naming him something as atrocious as Gogol or Tapur or whatever. It did so by subtly and otherwise showing me the impact a bad name can have on a child’s growing up and affect his mental balance. I am certain that when my child grows up, I am going to give him a copy of this book to read, so that he can also realise the magnitude of the damage that might have been and recognise me as the person who saved him from such agony.
Anyways, back to the book.. I mean the movie. It’s quite an engrossing movie. I would like to say entertaining as well, but do not want to give the impression that it is flippant. Tabu and Irfan have acted tremendously (no surprise there!!) and so have the others including Kal Penn. I would recommend the movie to everyone, despite the sometimes unnecessary heavy dose of sexual intimacy (pardon my conservative, middle class Indian mindset please!!).
What I found disappointing was that the movie missed an opportunity to showcase an extremely novel idea – of how the utter mismatch between our traditions and simpleton-like thinking and the realities of a foreign land, as reflected in giving a child a dak-naam (“pet name”) like Gogol, with the notion that the good name can be given much later as well, when the child goes to school, can completely impact a person’s life and lead him to be a confused, angry, frustrated soul who doesn’t even want to befriend his parents since they gave him such a name.
Hence, what I also found disappointing is that the movie degenerates into yet another movie about an Indian family settling abroad. Mind you, the word degenerated has nothing to do with the quality of the movie on its own (which I have already mentioned is worth watching). It is more a feeling of betrayal that I feel becuase the Director moved away from the central theme of the book. Thus, you have a great movie with Tabu playing the lead role, where the concept of the book is reduced to some jokes in school and in parties.
Some other inconsistencies in the movie –
- "The Telegraph", was launched in Calcutta on July 7, 1982 and hence could not have been around in the glimpse of the city in 1977
- The spelling is "Delhi" and not "Dehli". But maybe this was a conscious thing by the Director.
Some of the high points of the movie -
- Irfan using all his romanticism and persuation to get Tabu to come out of the bathroom, after she has managed to shrink his clothes in the washing machine
- Tabu driving a car in New York at 20 mph (or thereabouts) and being scared of causing an accident if she drove faster,
- The Bengali servant in the Calcutta household running after Gogol through the streets of Calcutta, having been told by Gogol's granny to keep an 'eye on him'.
The other big highlight of this movie, for all of us with some Bong-land connection, is to listen to the bangla bhasha and crack jokes and repartees in Bengali. Really made me nostalgic.
In summary, The Namesake is a very well made movie and worth a watch. But watch it as a movie in its own right as the central idea of the movie is quite different from the central idea of the book.
Moving on to Namaste London (Sunday morning show.. cheap tickets!!). A typical masala movie with a fair bit of tradition, modernism and a painful Himesh Reshammiya. That guy is just the same in every movie that he is a part of - same type of music, same high-pitched singing, and no role for other playback singer since he sings all the songs himself. Only saving grace in this movie was the fact that he did not make a physical appearance!!
Anyways, the movie itself is fast paced and entertaining. Akshay Kumar has clearly matured as an actor and has done some very good films in recent times. This is one more in that list. he pulls off the role of a jatt punjabi with great elan. Katrina Kaif is very very very good looking and quite hot too. Rishi Kapoor has done a good job as a confused Punjabi father of a British girl who is fuming at his daughter one minute and falling at her feet the next.
The basic plot has significant influences from movies like Purab aur Paschim (the speech on India) and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (the righteous, moving husband who would rather see his wife happy with another man than sad with himself and is willing to walk her down the aisle to marry her love and then promptly walk away with tears in his eyes, Ajay Devgan style) and Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahi (bhaag beti bhaag) and some others.
Some of the humour in the movie is quite corny, often silly and a bit overdone.
If one is looking for newness, the movie doesn't have any of it really. Yet, the old masala has been blended together well and the movie does not bore you at any point of time. And if that still doesn't appeal to you, then you can go for Katrina Kaif. She looks very very gorgeous!!.
So much for the Weekend Double Dhamaka. Cheerio..
Disclaimer: For those who are wondering about by use of the male pronoun for my child, that’s just because the character in the book and the movie was a boy. I do not know the sex of my child and all that I have said above would be equally valid if my child were to be a girl.
