The Namesake

America has been and still is referred to as “The land of Opportunity!”   The very name of this great land spells freedom.  Freedom to live the way that you want, to study the subject that you want, to even work at the job that you want and choose the food that you want.  Even though we know that this is what America is, very few of us actually know what it feels like to make that transition; to come from another country and to start a new life in the United States.  Many, many families come from foreign countries in order to have a shot at the “American Dream” and the movie The Namesake is a story about one such family.

            The film starts out with a young pair of people being matched up to marry in India.  Before the girl decides whether to accept the proposal, the father of the boy tells her that when she accepts, she must be willing to move to another country.  She smiles and decides that she will accept.  The couple moves from India to New York and begin to start their new life.  When they have a son, they cannot give him his “good name” yet because they must wait until the letter from her grandma arrives from India. So, on the birth certificate is put “Gogol Ganguli”, Gogol is to be his nickname until another can be chosen.

            Gogol ends up keeping his nickname all through high school because at 6 yrs old he told his teachers he did not want to be called Nikhul.  There is a story behind this name that Gogol is unaware of because his father waits a long time to unveil the secret of his name.  The film follows Gogol and watches him grow up and become who he is to become.  One of the most striking and fascinating comparisons in this film is to see the difference between the traditional Indian couple and their typical American teenagers.  It was quite amusing to see that difference.

           This movie shares a few similarities with the book Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee.  The heroine of the book also is a foreigner from India in the United States and she has to find ways to mold herself to modern society.  In this book Jasmine has many different names that she does not choose but that are given to her.  In the same way that Gogol does, Jasmine learns to embrace these different versions of herself, and associates them with the people who gave them to her.  She has names from her life in India and then names from her life in America.  Both characters realize the significance that their name or names hold for explaining who they are.

With all the movies that I watch there are very few that have actually spoken to me the way that The Namesake did.  It was magnificently written and the actors and actresses were perfectly assigned to their respective parts.  I could not tear my eyes from the TV screen and not once was I bored with the plot.  I really enjoyed this film and I definitely would recommend it to everyone.  It is a must see movie!