The Namesake

Warning, if you haven’t seen the moving and plan to, this blog gives away some important events in the story.

The movie “The Namesake,” is based on the best selling novel, and directed by Mira Nair.  The movie is about two parents from India raising their children in the United States.  The father underwent a life changing experience, which later influenced him to travel halfway across the world.  His wife agreed to marry him because she seemed excited about seeing America, and she liked his American made shoes.  While in the United States his wife, Ashima, gets pregnant.  When the child is born they had to come up with a name or the child couldn’t leave the hospital.  Neither one of the Indian parents had experienced this before because in India it can take parents years to finally decide on a name for their child.  So the father decides to name his son Gogol, after the author of the book he was reading during his life changing experience.

As Gogol gets older he is teased about his name, Gogol thinks his parents chose his name just because his parents liked the author.  He ends up changing his name to Nicholi so he can be called Nick, and to have a more American name.  It isn’t until shortly before the unexpected death of Gogol’s father that Gogol understands the meaning true meaning of his name.  Gogol then has a new appreciative view on his culture.

There also are messages in the movie, for example, that you shouldn’t try to be someone your not.  For example Gogol’s marriage was based on his parents Indian culture and not on his new American culture.  In addition throughout the movie colors with hidden meanings are used for foreshadowing future events in the film, primarily colors like orange and red.  I enjoyed this film and feel it deserves two thumbs up.

  The movie does a very good job on showing the struggles immagrants face when the travel far from home and are forced to adapt to new cultures.  For this family the culture differences between the parents and their children is huge.  One scene of the movie that shows the extreme differences in culture is during a ceremony at Ashima's house in honor of her deseased husband.  When Gogol's girlfriend comes over she is wearing black, however in Indian culture everyone wears white.  She sticks out like a sore thumb.  In the Catholic religion the priests used to wear black at funerals but it was changed to white to represent divinity and the acension to heaven.