205 thoughts on “Namesake: for export only?”

1. Because we all know that “people like this” are totally devoid of any knowledge of or respect for the culture of their parents/grandparents/ancestors. Also, just to nit-pick, much of The Namesake is specifically about Bengalis who were part of the diaspora, as were Lahiri’s parents.

   You mean she has “knowledge of or respect for the culture of their parents/grandparents/ancestors”? I wonder, then, why she has the typical pandering-type plot in her book? Traditional (thus oppressive) Conservartive Indians vs. Liberal (thus better) Western-born Indians.

   It seems that authors like Jhumpa Lahiri cannot think of plots differing from these lines…

2. It’s just that your guns were blazing on two very successful and quite talented female writers, you know.

   since when is successful = quality? Should I assume that you haven’t heard about Dan Brown?

3. Er…gross generalization?

   maybe I should have said post-1970s Bollywood movies….

4. You mean she has “knowledge of or respect for the culture of their parents/grandparents/ancestors”? I wonder, then, why she has the typical pandering-type plot in her book? Traditional (thus oppressive) Conservartive Indians vs. Liberal (thus better) Western-born Indians.

   Lahiri’s treatment and depiction of those dynamics are much more nuanced and complex than the black and white dichotomy you perceive.

   But anyway, those issues do exist. For diaspora Indians these are important themes. You are saying just writing about them in the first instance makes her beyond the pale. That’s so wrong. She is a more subtle writer than that.

5. since when is successful = quality? Should I assume that you haven’t heard about Dan Brown?

   No, don’t bother assuming that. I think i’ve heard of him. Let me google his name, after I’ve done a search for ‘male Indian writers in the West’ 😉

   Hey, you didnt really answer any of my points about her work and its literary value. She is successful as well as being a talented writer. Maybe it is that very success that irks you?

6. You are saying just writing about them in the first instance makes her beyond the pale.

   Yikes! That’s sure to bring the colorism brigade crawling out from under their rocks…

7. From what I have read that in The Namesake she tries to portrays Bengali culture in her book. Being a Bengali, I take offense in that, because what she is doing can be best classfied as pandering to white culture/audience. I wonder exactly how much she knows about Bengali culture herself, seeing that she was born abroad and spent all of her life there.

   Dude, have you even read the book? (Of course, as a Bengali intellectual, you don’t really need to read a book in order to diss it, right?) I don’t remember a single explicit reference to ‘Bengali’ culture beyond the fact that the parents were from Calcutta. All the Bengaliness in the novel (very little of it) was pretty incidental. And there was no mango chutney for miles…

   Besides, the book is completely from the perspective of an Indian-American guy. And definitely a ‘probashi’ Bengali (like myself, who grew up in Mumbai). It struck me as a pretty authentic presentation of that particular perspective of Indian/Bengali culture. One person’s view, that’s all. I don’t remember it making generalizations like ‘Indian culture is …this or that’. The approach was more ‘These are the experiences of one person with a specific background…make of it what you will’.

8. Yikes! That’s sure to bring the colorism brigade crawling out from under their rocks

   Razib, any figures or data on genetic DNA make up of diaspora authors???

   Get on the case, Dawkins.

9. I’m rooting for the Tamil Brahmin Iyers! But whatever you say, don’t say, “that’s not fair.” What counts as “fair” depends on how many Punjabis are in the neighborhood…

   Back to arguing about the Namesake, you slackers!

10. Take Jhumpa Lahiri for example. From what I have read that in The Namesake she tries to portrays Bengali culture in her book. Being a Bengali, I take offense in that, because what she is doing can be best classfied as pandering to white culture/audience. I wonder exactly how much she knows about Bengali culture herself, seeing that she was born abroad and spent all of her life there. For a person like this to try to portray Bengali, much less Indian, culture is disingenous at best

    Technophobic geek is right, the book is more focused on the experience of an desi guy growing up in America, the Bengali culture references are incidental to his story. She is not pandering to a white audience; this is one of those books that a white audience might enjoy, but ABDs can definitely relate to it a lot.

    On another note, why would anyone expect this film to be a blockbuster in India? Would anyone expect a Bollywood film to be a huge hit in American theaters? I think this film will do moderately well here in the States, maybe not a blockbuster but I doubt it will be a flop.

11. Fei, you say that Lahiri’s book is a pandering type of “Traditional (thus oppressive) Indians vs. Liberal (thus better) Western-born Indians.” I’m confused because I didn’t see this in The Namesake at all. Nor in Interpreter of Maladies. Did you read the book? It was quite sympathetic to the problems of the new immigrants as well as those of their son. The main character, Gogol, an American-born Indian, is ashamed of his name and changes it, but the readers aren’t happy about this, since they know about the true story of his naming that goes back to his father’s life in India. Gogol has relationships with people who are of Indian descent as well as people who aren’t, and has various problems with both. His issues with his identity don’t seem simplified or ‘pandering’ at all. In fact, they really rung true for me, which is a good indication that she is writing about what she knows best. At no point did I question whether Lahiri, being American-born, was qualified to write about the topic. Actually, that didn’t surprise me at all since I don’t think a Bengali-born, Bengali-raised author could possibly have written this book. What did surprise me was how well Lahiri, a woman, was able to write so believably from the point of view of a young man.

12. Would anyone expect a Bollywood film to be a huge hit in American theaters?

    Maybe, in 10 or so years, like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and other Chinese movies, recent and even going back to Hong Kong made Bruce Lee/ martial art movies. It will be a while for Bollywood but that is the general idea.

    I haven’t read Namesake but have read her other stuff and her many interviews. She definitely draws into Bengali culture and experiences, that is OK. Her reporterie right now is quite limited, it may grow with time.

    She is no Taslima in terms of life experiences and breadth of writing yet.

    The movie will do moderate business in USA, and even in art house theaters in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai. Shyam Benegal, Govind Nilihani, Ketan Mehta (I am not even including Satyajit Ray) were making make realistic movies from Bombay/ India even before Mira Nair started. I like Mira Nair though.

    Dancing and music is an integral part of any Indian/ South Asian celebrations be it any religion…….ladies sangeet, baraat etc, therefore, bollywood is totally not off.

13. What did surprise me was how well Lahiri, a woman, was able to write so believably from the point of view of a young man.

    That surprised me too, I give her lot of credit for attempting that and pulling that off.

14. What did surprise me was how well Lahiri, a woman, was able to write so believably from the point of view of a young man.

    That reminds me of that memorable line from “As Good As It Gets” as delivered by Jack Nicholson 😀

    Receptionist: How do you write women so well? Melvin Udall: I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.

15. Not to mention Aparna Sen, and

    is Namesake in the same class as 36 Chowringhee Lane, a movie made in India in 1981 in English, and perhaps one of the most sensitive movie ever made from India/ Indian diaspora.

    We’ll see.

16. the book was a let down, and a movie is never as good as the book so …

17. Good movies are hard to make. Great ones are…well, forget about it. It’s talent, luck, a whole jumble of unintended consequences and spiritual energies. That stuff doesn’t come with a schedule. It just shows up when it’s good and ready.

    Still, I think that India has three remarkable storytellers in Aparna Sen, Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta. Sen seems the most finished artist of the three, but in my opinion they’re all doing very good work. Good and necessary.

18. Assuming that it comes out on the 20th, any mutineers in the NYC area want to check it out?

    i’m down!

19. mira nair: not a huge fan, think she went over board with kama sutra, and wasn’t into her films after that fiasco… namesake: not a great book brick lane: horrible book, can’t understand the hype over ali… tabu: amazing actress (anyone seen astitva?–good flick!) kal penn: overrated, but cute

    vikram:

    That reminds me of that memorable line from “As Good As It Gets” as delivered by Jack Nicholson 😀 Receptionist: How do you write women so well? Melvin Udall: I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.

    thanks for a great laugh.

    ThatÂ’s right – a realistic portrayal of life in two countries, and people wonder why nobody is dancing.

    ennis where the hell do you live? i dance all the time… from frolicking in the fields, to prancing in the parks…come to the world of the bean..where being gassy is so sassy ;)…

20. Why is the boy [Kal Penn] not dancing?

    Hilarious.

    I don’t know if Namesake will suffer quick death at the box office, because Water ran for a surprisingly long time in a lot of major cities AND tertiary markets. While I’ve already given the soapbox speech about how I felt about the book [if you missed it, stick your finger down your throat and you’ll get similar results], The Namesake, I do enjoy Mira Nair’s work immensely and hope that the artistic liberties she’s taken in making her film are exactly the B-12 injection the story needs for a compelling translation to screen.

21. Nods in agreement with Fei on comment 21 Ten props for Fei! (except for the R.K. Narayan bit – Sorry, but these stories about the small Indian life just don’t get my fancy. Swami and Friends is fine, but the others… The English Teacher is especially boring)

    The only things I’ve seen which are worse than Bollywood movies are Japanese television commercials.

22. Kobayashi’s in rare form. I sense a George Dickel influence.

23. No song, no dance, no interest. this is the holy trinity of ‘how to kill an indian movie’ otherwise known as a holy trifecta of ‘how to get this bean to watch an indian flick’ shabash 🙂

    Count this Kiwi chicky in too.

24. Fei et al, I’m a little troubled by the fact that you assume ‘authentic experience’ goes hand in hand with writing talent. I find Tasleema Nasreen’s writing painful to read — sloppy; embarrassing, even. I dearly wish someone would give her the services of a good editor for her birthday. It would mitigate the injustice of wasting so many trees on her prose.

    Regarding experience, I don’t recall anyone ever criticizing Dickens for writing about life in inner city London slums, despite the fact that he most certainly did not have first-hand experience of what it was like to be born, grow up, live and die in Spitalfields. The combined powers of research and imagination generally suffice for talented writers. I’m not going to say I think the world of Lahiri, but I do think that an author’s personal experiences never (on their own) provide a legitimate basis for criticism of his or her work.

25. I’d just like to say Tabu is one of the better actresses from bollywood and deserving of any success that comes her way, as well as Irfan Khan. 😀

    Stop condescending Indian audiences Ennis! You have riled them like a stingray off the Australian Coast!

    And that comment is so wrong! Even the Crocodile hunter has a family with two kids. Have a heart!He just died!

26. Thank you Simran. Taslima Nasreen is a TERRIBLE writer. I am all for her taking on the mullahs and for the causes she espouses, but her writing is a whole other matter. Having an ‘authentic’ desi experience doesn’t make you a good writer. For a really good discussion of these issues of ‘authenticity,’ here is an essay by Vikram Chandra that I got off Jabberwock’s blog. also, I haven’t heard any of these authors claiming that they are representing ‘real Indian experience’ etc. They write about diasporic, mobile, and often upper-crust Indians. So sue them.

27. And that comment is so wrong! Even the Crocodile hunter has a family with two kids. Have a heart!He just died!

    Bah! Enough of these public morals! Irwin had a good death. Spectacular, captured on camera, the death he’d been looking for all these years. Nothing wrong with the Snapper’s comments.

    Most of us will be curled up in bed and all wrinkly, and crapping in our nappies, when the Grim Reaper shows up. That, my friend, is the real tragedy.

28. And what is it with Panjabi-bashing on this blog? I caught only some of the previous interminable ‘coloured’ threads. Some serious stereotyping going on here about Panjabi-Bollywood-Northie choices, ideas, personalities etc–

29. maybe I should have said post-1970s Bollywood movies….

    Fei, I’d agree with you upto 2000, but I’ll defend Bollywood for the post- Dil Chahta Hai era.

30. Bah! Enough of these public morals! Irwin had a good death. Spectacular, captured on camera, the death he’d been looking for all these years. Nothing wrong with the Snapper’s comments. Most of us will be curled up in bed and all wrinkly, and crapping in our nappies, when the Grim Reaper shows up. That, my friend, is the real tragedy.

    Go Steve!!!!

31. When it comes to being entertained by Indian American talent we seem to have a very low threshold.

    Very true, because the choices are so few that I’m entertained simply by someone expressing the Indian American viewpoint in a public forum. Now, if you want to be entertained by a 20-40 year old white male, you’ve got your pick of 2/3 of Hollywood.

    Yawn…another movie/book about confused Indian-Americans….hasn’t this already been done before?

    I think it speaks to the whole Hollywood system that an Indian American can only make it by playing up retread storylines and themes that have proven marketability…

    I have no doubt that this movie will do well with the artsy-fartsy non-brown American crowd.

    …and intentionally focusing appeal on a narrow niche audience. It’s interesting that when talent isn’t constrained by the old boy network, such as on the internet, you get things like Sepia Mutiny.

    Um….really – what was the point of this post Ennis, except, it seems to put down Indians in India?

    Now, here’s an interesting question. As a proud American and foreign movie fanatic (and snob) I’ve had a frustration or two about a Bollywood system that is the world’s most perfect machine for producing drivel. Now Hollywood might be racist, nepotistic, and unbelievably narcissistic but at least it has the good sense to get out of its own way occassionally and allow true talent to rise above the Beerfest rubble (like a lotus flower, beta).

    Or does a nation of one billion people lack an “artsy fartsy” crowd.

    No, but it does lack a system that can reliably produce a significant number of movies for this crowd.

    what was the point of this post Ennis, except, it seems to put down Indians in India?

    Just one more thing. I have to quote Anna here: Sepia Mutiny is for Indians, about Indians, by people who hate Indians – (sarcasm implied). Ah, a line that reads like Woody Allen.

32. Fei, I’d agree with you upto 2000, but I’ll defend Bollywood for the post- Dil Chahta Hai era.

    Chinai Seth, When was Sholay, Deewar, Yadoon ki Baraat, Pakeezah, Bobby, Namak Halal, Mr. India made – in 1970s and 80s.

    When was Ankur made by Shyam Benegal? Google, my man. Or Junoon or Ardh Satya.

    Don’t forget Kalicharan. Saara sheher mujhe Loin ke naamse jaanta hai.

33. This film will be playing at the Toronto International Film Fest (TIFF) next week. Boo that I didn’t score tickets for it, as this was the movie I had wanted to see the most. Any other Torontonian’s attending the event? Wonder if Kal or Mira will make it to the screening.

34. It will also be playing at the Sixth Annual IAAC Film Festival in NYC on November 1st. Tickets (at $350 a pop!) appear to be available…

35. apologies… $350 is for the gala… just the screening will cost you just $100.

36. Re Fei @ 36: You might want to take a look at this Vikram Chandra’s essay “The Cult of Authenticity”, as it reads as an excellent counter arugument to what you have said in your comments. To qoute from a section that I had underlined in my softcopy:

    “Be ruthlessly practical, like the bhais of Bombay, those CCTV-using, Glock-firing, Bholenath-worshipping gangsters. Do whatever it takes to get the job done. Use whatever you need. Swagger confidently through all the world, because it all belongs to you. And donÂ’t worry about tradition. Whatever you do felicitously will be Indian. It cannot be otherwise. If Bholenath speaks to you, put him in your painting, or your story. The inevitable fact that some reader in New Jersey will find BholenathÂ’s tiger skin and matted hair “exotic” is wholly irrelevant. To be self-consciously anti-exotic is also to be trapped, to be censored. Be free. Give up nothing, and swallow everything. In your work, donÂ’t be afraid of elephants and snakes and mystical India. If repetition and misuse have emptied out an image, a metaphor, a trope, rendered it void of meaning and substance, your job as an artist then is to be wily; you must slide sideways under the metaphor, take it onto your skin and inhabit it, then twist it, mangle it, pervert it, until it becomes your own and therefore comes alive again. You have to repossess what was once yours, what is still yours. To give up a metaphor because someone else has abused it is reflexive stupidity; you are again letting “them” take the initiative, letting them decide what is still yours and what is not. You are giving up ground. India is full of elephants and snakes and mysticism, and also cell phones and nuclear weapons and satellites. Give up nothing, and swallow everything.”

    While I didn’t like “The Namesake” (it hit many false notes for me), I think Ms. Lahiri (or for that matter any other author) can write about whatever culture they want (it’s fiction dammit!) – also by this measure Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene would have had to sit and twiddle their thumbs for their fiction took stuff from all over!

37. Fei said:

    “Yawn…another movie/book about confused Indian-Americans….hasn’t this already been done before? And the same tired Indian-boy-wants-white-chick-but-encounters-CONSERVATIVE-Indian-family plot….Yawn”

    over 25 years ago, someone much like yourself probably said the same thing when they first heard that shitty garage band play whose name started with the letter ‘M’, citing their sound as thunderously unoriginal and hackneyed at best; a weak emulation of a formula already mastered by the likes of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest.

    Metalli-WHAT?

    personally, Lahiri bores me to tears; i have more fun hiding my wife’s jewelry until she becomes so ridiculously peeved that it’s only a matter of time before she’s chasing me around the house with a garam chimta. plot line schmotline.

38. However, this is a movie that will do well in the states but flop “back home” in India. India loves movies like Krrish, and despite annual announcements of a new Bollywood realism, I doubt that Indian audiences will take to The Namesake.

    That’s not fair, you cannot judge Indian movies based on watching bollywood movies. Bollywood doesn’t represent entire Indian movie Industry. I presume you never watched Bengali or any of the south Indian movies.

    Every year number of artsy-fartsy films are made in regional languages and most of them are successful in south India. Here are my favourites in recent years Malayalam: Perumazhakkalam, Akale, Udayananu Thaaram Tamil : Autograph, Pithamagan, Kadhal Telugu: Aithe, Anukokunda Oka Roju

39. Actually came in late from desipundit, so didn’t read all the comments, so not sure if someone ahs already mentioned this: The reasons mentioned for Indians not liking the movie maybe a little right, but not all. The main reasons why the movie may not do well, and that’s the same as ‘why I won’t see the movie’ are firstly, I thought the book was plain, in fact below ordinary, it had no story and rambled too much, and secondly, most Indians will not identify with the so-called angst of gogol and problems that migrants face, which forms such an important part of the story.

40. Who cares if those in the Indian subcontinent will like this movie? Isn’t this blog about the 2nd generation Indians abroad (NRIs)? Personally, regardless of my feelings towards Kal Penn, I think the movie will move several 2nd generation Desis. While Mira Nair’s book was beautifully written, I am always skeptical about how movies can live up to the standards of novels. However, I am glad that there is a movie that we as the children of immigrants can relate to on a very personal level.

41. Who cares if those in the Indian subcontinent will like this movie? Isn’t this blog about the 2nd generation Indians abroad (NRIs)? Personally, regardless of my feelings towards Kal Penn, I think the movie will move several 2nd generation Desis. While Mira Nair’s book was beautifully written, I am always skeptical about how movies can live up to the standards of novels. However, I am glad that there is a movie that we as the children of immigrants can relate to on a very personal level.

42. “most Indians will not identify with the so-called angst of gogol and problems that migrants face, which forms such an important part of the story.”

    Hmmm… but they always identify with filthy rich old men pretending to be college students, dancing on the slopes of the Swiss alps with filthy rich women. Interesting. People definitely need to read this post by Uma.

43. Personally, I wish Gogol was written as a more f**ked up character by Lahiri. Would have been so much more interesting.

44. Hmmm… but they always identify with filthy rich old men pretending to be college students, dancing on the slopes of the Swiss alps with filthy rich women.

    NO! We all went to see Superman. Think we tried to fly? Come on…

45. Neale-

    Funny you should say that. When I went to Lahiri’s Namesake reading at Cody’s in Berkeley, a guy in the audience brought up a similar point–that is, that the novel steers pretty clear of a lot of issues that most second gen Indian Americans face growing up in America. He asked why she avoided this conflict throughout the novel, and needless to say, she wasn’t too happy with the question. I think her response was somewhere along the lines of a flustered “I’m sorry you felt that way.” (Anyone there remember this incident in more detail?). While I think Lahiri has a lot of talent as a writer, in-depth and thought-provoking character development don’t quite strike me as her strong points.

46. While I think Lahiri has a lot of talent as a writer, in-depth and thought-provoking character development don’t quite strike me as her strong points.

    I find it so interesting that so many people engage in Lahiri-bashing! Granted, the sight of her in a recent Time magazine with blonde highlights and coloured contacts did not make me want to send out warm, fluffy vibes to her. But I think she just had an awesome sense of timing, she captured and distilled this moment when the issues underlying The Namesake were on so many people’s minds. Remember when Manish wrote his tribute to the opening passage of the novel? The number of people who recognised it instantly shows that she does have an impact and that her novel certainly did.

    I enjoy her quiet style and her economic, crisp, clean prose.

    There are better writers, but there will always be better writers. A v wise man once said ‘Life would be a quiet forest if the only birds who sang were the best.’

47. Sorry up too late mate, I think I might have been staying up too late meself. Think we just agreed on the same point! Guess my comments were directed at the people who keep knockin’ back the Jhumpa. Apologies.

    And I’m glad CHICKPEA :-), that I wasn’t the only one confused by the fuss over Brick Lane. Going ice skating in a sari at the end…wtf?…

48. @Witnwisdumb, what you are talking about is escapist cinema, which is, I think, different from the genre ‘Namesake’ would fall in, just my opinion. As Neale pointed out, we also see Superman and all such stuff and they are a hit in India too. Such movies, need not have identifiable characters or a taut, coherent storyline. Films like ‘the Namesake’ need all those to run, case in point Omkara, Being Cyrus, etc. So,to solely predict that the Namesake will not run in India because it does not conform to the Indian format of movie-making, leaves out other, more pertinent reasons, i.e. the subject matter and a hardly-there story.

49. Novels do not change my thinking. They only make me think. But The Namesake did make me painfully aware of what the final chapter of my life in America would be, and that’s when I decided: a) I do not want to die in a lonely motel room somewhere in America; b) I do want to spend my final days in India. After this epiphany, brought on by the book, I promptly made a trip to India and bought a house. No, I am still years away from retiring, but hey, if people can buy cemetery lots years in advance, I can at least buy a house.

    The Namesake was set in the Indian/Bengali diaspora, but I felt it was about transplanted and reformulated cultures and people in a much broader sense. I am dying to see the movie. A Freudian slip.

50. I wish Gogol was written as a more f**ked up character by Lahiri. Would have been so much more interesting.

    I guess it depends on whether one wants to see fellow Western-born Indian men portrayed as relatively “normal” or with all kinds of psychological issues. The Buddha of Suburbia is probably a good choice for people who prefer the latter. What fun those of us in the UK had when the book and, later, the television dramatisation came out; finally a British (South) Asian character in a high-profile lead role, portrayed as romantically successful, and a world away from all the usual stereotypes about Indians which had been prevalent in the British media until then. Unfortunately, he was so screwed up that most of us couldn’t identify with him at all beyond our common ethnicity and the British locales portrayed. But the story was certainly entertaining enough, especially at a time when desi faces were very rare indeed on British television (and, in terms of 2nd-Gen characters, also still relatively rare in high-profile Western literature).

    I suspect that The Namesake will be a hit amongst the Western-focused urban elites back in India although not amongst the rest of the viewing population there. It will also be successful amongst 2nd-Gen desis in the West, both in America and in the United Kingdom.

    ---

    Chandi,

    And what is it with Panjabi-bashing on this blog? I caught only some of the previous interminable ‘coloured’ threads. Some serious stereotyping going on here about Panjabi-Bollywood-Northie choices, ideas, personalities etc–

    It’s a factor of the different regional composition of American South Asians, certainly compared with the United Kingdom. This kind of nonsense is practically non-existent amongst 2nd-Gen Indians in Britain (and people making such remarks would be rapidly torn apart, considering the “northie” dominance of the desi population here), apart from amongst “armchair khilafat” types and some (by no means all) Pakistanis here who obviously have their own baggage regarding their cousins from across the border. The bukwaas sometimes posted on SM is a reflection of the prejudices and hangups prevalent amongst some of the commenters, and I don’t regard it as any kind of negative reflection on the core bloggers/”Mutineers” (especially as several of them are of Punjabi extraction themselves). A firmer hand by the blog’s moderators with regards to immediately stamping on some of the “reverse-racism” would certainly be a good idea, although I know that in practice this is difficult, as the Mutineers have their own social and professional lives taking up much of their time, which is why some stupid behaviour unfortunately slips through the net on occasion.