“The Namesake” had its world debut on Saturday, at the Telluride film festival [Thanks Gautham]. We first blogged about the movie almost two years ago [We also blogged the casting call, but got no couch privileges]. The trailers [Quicktime, Real, WMP] for the movie look excellent, so I’ve been wriggling with anticipation just waiting for its release. 
For those of you just tuning in, this is a film based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s first book novel, directed by Mira Nair, and starring Kal Penn, thus making it a desi-American trifecta. The tagline is for the movie is “Two worlds. One journey,” a phrase so wonderful that it is destined to replace “blend of East and West” in matrimonial ads. Since Kal Penn even gets a blond girlfriend, I’m sure that at least one of the mutineers will go watch the movie for that reason alone. 
I have no doubt that this movie will do well with the artsy-fartsy non-brown American crowd. Mira Nair is skillful at pushing the line of prurient exoticism just far enough to maximize general interest in the movie, while never selling out.
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. “Why is the boy [Kal Penn] not dancing?”
We can get a glimpse of what the popular response to the film is likely to be from the reactions to it while a scene was being shot at the Taj Mahal. Even though the movie stars Tabu and Irfan Khan, one person stopped a journalist (confusing him with Mira Nair) to inquire:
“Are you the director Mira Nair? Why don’t you cast (Bollywood star) Shah Rukh Khan in your film?” [Link]
Another onlooker asked:
“Why is the boy [Kal Penn] not dancing?” [Link]
That’s right – a realistic portrayal of life in two countries, and people wonder why nobody is dancing. I think that pretty much sums up how Indian audiences will feel about the film. No song, no dance, no interest.
You know, I’m doing a lot of defending of Lahiri here, and I just want to say that I’m not that a massive fan of her work, although I think she is a talented and a subtle writer, but I can understand why she was pissed off with being asked a question like that. She writes a novel about one thing, as fully as she can, and people start berating her for not including other things in it to their liking. I mean, you just can’t win, can you? If Shakespeare had been alive and done readings some Danish exchange student would stand up and tell him off for not depicting a certain hilarious incident that is famous amongst Danish students who studied abroad and why he couldnt be more enthusiastic about the architecture of Elsinore castle. He’d be like, “Hey Shakespeare! Why you pandering to Londoners with stereotypes of lazy and gloomy Danes! We are fun people too, you know! You just didnt represent us accurately! We still sing viking songs, you know, we’re crazy people when you get to know us! We’re not one dimensional like you make out!”
What??? Lahiri blonded her hair and wore colored contacts?? Seriously? Is the picture Online? Now that really is a case of colorism. She must be a wannabe-Punjabi.
Oh God I can see this thread moving in another direction altogether yikes Mr Kobayashi look what you started…..
Wow, I thought I was the only one who wrote/thought of things like that ie signs that one either has copious amounts of free time or is so excellent at procrastinating that they explain a point in waaaay too much detail. As a Lahiri character would solemnly say, ‘It’s good to know I’m not alone’ 🙂
You can never include enough detail in an anecdote when you’re bored and pretending to work 🙂
Red Snapper,
Yes, Ms Lahiri is in blatant self-denial and self-hatred regarding her ethnicity, and is a fully paid-up member of the global Punjabi-Whitey-Coconut/Oreo Supremacy Nexus and Northie/Gauri Beauty Conspiracy. Stone the harlot for perpetuating such oppressive ideas amongst the poor, huddled NRI masses 😉
On a more serious note, I think the complaining in some quarters about her writing (which you have been refuting on this thread) may be due to the lack of sufficiently high-profile desis in the United States, and the perceived negative attitude towards South Asians within the American media and mainstream population as a whole. Some people are understandably (albeit not necessarily justifiably) going to be a little touchy about these matters. Remember how some Asians in Britain were similarly hypersensitive when Goodness Gracious Me started, as it was accused of “making us all look bad”. However, I do agree with the accusations towards Gurinder Chadha.
Things may have changed in Britain over the past decade, but it wasn’t too long ago that Asians here were similarly jumpy about anything which would (actually or theoretically) reflect negatively on them from the perspective of the mainstream population.
PS Red Snapper — your ongoing comments about the alleged MILFness of Tabu are very dodgy indeed, especially as she’s in full Aunty Mode in that picture 😉
Dodgy, dodgy stuff….Jai shaking head
It’s possible some misguided graphics person lightened Ms. Lahiri’s hair and eyes; that sort of thing happens a lot. Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears have had their brown eyes turned blue on magazine covers, for example.
I think Asians are still the same in the UK Jai. Just look at the response of some people to Brick Lane. Plus, I kind of agree with them to a certain extent. There are some things that make me irrational too, like when you read certain writers, or watch a Gurinder Chadha film, for some reason it makes me come out in a rash. Just look at the cover of The Interpreter of Maladies in the news tab which does a disservice to her. So its not that those things are wrong, I just think they’re wrong about Jhumpa Lahiri who is a better writer than the usual second rate pandering type.
I read the book a few months ago. Warning-this novel can be really depressing if you are at a low point in your life. I wasn’t at a particularly happy stage then and this really put me down in the dumps.
Sigh, don’t understand all this Lahiri-bashing (cicatrix, where be you nowadays?). At least for my English-lit-type friends, it seems like they expect EVERY Indian-diaspora novel to be written in a Rushdiesque way – Indians have no sense of time and think in fundamentally different ways and all that. Not to take away from Rushdie, but really, I do think it’s OK to write a chronologically straightforward novel with a simple story, no?
I don’t think anyone, including Lahiri herself, makes any claims for the novel being a superlative masterpiece of literature. What I liked about it was it seemed to be very faithful to presenting the experience of a small set of people, a single family, and it gave me the feeling that she was writing about a lot of real experiences. I actually liked the ‘rambling’ stream-of-consciousness style coz it drew me in. The book didn’t seem to try and hammer any generalizations about any larger community and I did not make any just from reading it.
Another thing I liked immensely was her courage, in a way, to actually have a male protagonist, going against the usual grain of female characters who have to be ‘rescued’ from Indian culture.
Well, too bad that particular dude’s issues were not covered. Maybe in the next book…
Why should they? :d – namesake is afterall a story about immigrants, and if mira nair has done half a good job of the nuances lahiri conveys, it will be appreciated, only by immigrants. Though one can argue that the emotions and story of the book are universal, basic premise of the book can be related to by immigrants only. Thus, the book to begin with itself had a niche segment to deal with – it would not appeal to americans too much because they haven’t lived that life, nor to desis back home, because they havent lived it either 🙂 – I would rather want this movie to be true to the book rather than try to become a “universal” story.
And knowing Mira Nair, she screws up big time, almost always. I find it so totally unncessary that the story had to move to New York instead of Boston, and that Aashima had to be a singer in the movie!
Supremus
On a digressory note, am reading ‘Londonstani’ right now and enjoying it immensely. Did SM ever review that book, I searched and couldn’t find something too relevant.
Ach, this could go either way. I looove NYC, so it might work for me.
Mira Nair seems to always to a better job working on original stories rather than adapting books. But we’ll see. Waiting for a review from one of the mutineers.
Sashi (#36), that’s some terrific stuff. Vikram Chandra knocks my socks off with that quotation.
Your point is heartily taken.
Ah, an early entrant for idiotic comment of the day.
Often decisions like those, made for no apparent artistic reason, are made by the producer, not the director.
See here: http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/feb/07mira.htm
— What next? Max does a Bhangda in the movie because Mira likes it? 🙂
S
I have some responses to what people have said above, but I’m warning that my clarifications are as long as the original post itself.
Imagine if the Hollywood only produced science-fiction epics, that would be interesting, wouldn’t it? Well, Bollywood is larger, and narrower in scope. Both the Chinese and Brazilian film industries are smaller, yet they produce a greater variety of genres. For example, Reservoir Dogs was a rip off of a Chinese film. India didn’t get a Reservoir Dogs until they ripped off Quentin Tarantino.
Yes, I know that Bollywood is not the entire Indian film industry, but it does respond to the India-wide film market. It is an interesting observation that regional films seem to be more diverse in tone – I don’t know why that might be, whether because of Bollywood’s production methods or because regional audiences are more interested in serious stories.
I also don’t think that the movie will be artsy-fartsy. Think of Monsoon Wedding, that was good old fashioned melodrama, it wasn’t a boring artsy movie. So I think that it could be commercially appealing.
However, the reason why I think it wont do well, in the end, is that it’s not of the right genre.
I do think that the movie will be more commercially successful in the US than in India, even controlling for ticket prices. I never claimed that the people watching The Namesake get films at the Taj were a statistically representative sample, but I think that their remarks were incredibly revealing – they didn’t recognize a movie that didn’t fall within certain narrow constraints. I think that’s a major obstacle to its appeal if audiences don’t “get” a serious drama. Americans walking by a Bollywood shoot in New York don’t ask “Where are the light sabers” do they?
And a whole separate comment for my favorite objection:
Despite the fact that Indians do sing and dance at weddings I don’t think that Bollywood is a “realistic portrayal of life” in India.
ROTFL! Phoenix, I just love your portrayal of Indian life. I have been to weddings in India. And yes, as Kush comments below, they do sing and dance. However, people sing and dance at American weddings too – in different places, but they do this.
Both the singing and the dancing happens at specific times though, I’ve never seen people “break out into song and dance at any given opportunity” by a long shot.
Go to your favorite Indian city and watch people on the street. Aside from weddings and religious ceremonies, have you ever seen anybody singing and dancing?
Maybe we Punjabis are a dour, unexpressive, humorless folk compared to the rest of India, but that’s not life as I’ve experienced it. And honestly, Indians don’t sing and dance any more than black people in America do at their weddings and churches, maybe even less so. But nobody would claim that Bollywood type musicals are a realistic portrayal of black life.
I have lived in places where people were more likely to break into song and/or dance. People in those countries loved Bollywood. But their own cinema tended not to be musical.
Kush’s more moderate remark was more on the mark:
Kush – it’s a leap. Indians sing at specified times, they don’t explode into song and dance as part of daily events. It’s a cinematic convention, a charming one, but not a realistic one. And when all movies are made like that, it means that there is little room for serious story telling. In the US, a serious film can be a hit, this happens regularly. In India, not so much.
And why should there be any interest? How about screening a Kubrick in Harlem and asking for an opinion? If you want to make a point atleast make sure you aren’t comparing groups that are similar in some ways. And chances are The Namesake will actually do pretty well with the urban-multiplex crowd in India – the ‘artsy-fartsy’ kind if you will.
That said I thought the book was well alright – it was a bit too crafted for my sake. And its not an experience that I connect with either (something that counted with my Bengali friends) so it lost points on both style and content. But I’d really be interested in how the movie turns out.
See above:
This movie is a family melodrama about tension between generations – classic Bollywood subject, but it’s just not done in Bollywood genre.
In the US, this has to be a niche art house movie because of its subject matter. In India, that constraint is lifted. However, unlike the US, where realistic movies can become big hits, that’s unlikely to happen in India.
Since I’m on a roll, explaining myself far too much:
Actually, if you look at the post, I make fun of ABDs first, then non-Brown American moviegoers, then only last do I mock Indians.
Verily, I am an equal opportunity moquer
Ennis,
I would argue that The Namesake (and bear in mind that I haven’t seen it) would be count as niche arthouse cinema in India too. The language itself is a barrier that the mainstream Indian movie-watcher won’t be able to bridge. The broad gist of the story (the classic generational conflict) is a Bollywood but surely The Namesake is a more nuanced plot than that – I would say its more about Gogol’s identity (and the classic generational conflict highlights it).
I agree with you that the Bollywood (and in general India’s) movie output is very narrow in range (I won’t make claims that regional movies are broader because as someone who has watched Telugu movies I know that the percentages go against that claim). But part of the reason is because the US has a market that can sustain the arthouse cinema circuit and India doesn’t. The average joe on streets of New York (yes even New York) will not go watch a indie film but there are enough people out there who will. India as a market is not as diverse and movie-making sadly enough is mostly about making money and consequently about pandering to the tastes of the majority. And it takes balls to go against that trend.
Also while most Indians don’t break in song and dance and start changing costumes at the drop of a hat. But they sure do like people who do!
PS: I’m starting to think that we might broadly be saying the same things and I might actually be reacting to what I read as an implied condescension.
sashi, to second the compliment about your post #86. that was an excellent excerpt from chandra and points about conrad and greene.
Re:
“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”
I used to think this plot was poison too. Every time I read about a new desi-themed book coming out – including Lahiri’s – I would blow up. It was as though those authors had specifically chosen that plot, out of some weird malice, in order to torment and shame ME and all other desis too cool to fall for its sentimental tug.
Unfortunately, (I realized later) that plot happens to describe the experience of quite a lot of people who have grown up in the U.S. Not mine, but the plots of my parents’ friends’ children, of kids I knew at school…of a lot more people than I thought. Sure, I’d like to see the definitive “Indian-girl-with-extremely-LIBERAL-parents-is-encouraged-in-her-nonlucrative-career-and-becomes-sci-fi/fantasy-icon,” but I no longer begrudge the “marriage” plot or people’s right to write it – even badly. Do we spit on the marriage plot because it enrages us on a gut level – not as fictional story, but for the fact that it has represented so many TRUE stories? I think that’s why I did.
An author is not responsible for a group. Nor must she reinvent the wheel every time she sits at her keyboard. An author is responsible for taking her individual characters on a journey. If, at first glance, those character happen to live a plot that’s “cliched,” they still deserve a closer look. Their cliche may still unfold unlike anyone else’s cliche.
Unless the author is Kaavya V.
Then again, my sci fi/surreal bent may be my way of checking out of this mess permanently; I won’t write about Indians, Americans, India, America, OR anything in between; I’ll write about aliens!
Hey, I thought you said you wouldn’t write about Indians.
ducks for cover
I love this website for the love that the bloggers have for desi issues and south asian awareness in america, and the support they throw behind it, but the comment section on most of the blogs is purely heinous.
Why do so many people have this crazy indian-on-indian hate? What one author writes about may be true for them, because we all grow up with different experiences. Personally, I enjoyed the Namesake (though not as much as other “Western” Indian authored books), and really look forward to seeing the movie. And if it turns out to be horrible, thats okay, because at least desi’s are putting stuff out there…and I will keep supporting.
Ennis (post #17) – on the Kal Penn Namesake blog, he mentions that the release was pushed up to the 20th.
There are so many comments, so forgive me if I’m repeating something someone else said. I think The Namesake will do decently in India, but I think it’s limited in how much it success it could achieve over there. Yes, the theme of generation differences is one often covered in Bollywood movies, and everyone does have issues with self-awareness and developing their own indentity, but I feel that the setting of the book, and the specific issues that arise with Gogol wouldn’t be something that movie-goers in India could identify with en masse. I think they could appreciate it as a nice story, and some may walk away with a new or fresh perspective, but the movie has much more potential to do well in the U.S.
the book, while well-written in many ways, failed to captivate me as much as The Interpreter of Maladies. Those short stories were absolutely astounding. The Namesake, while hitting upon many truths, did not provide any sympathetic characters. I’ll probably still see the movie (go Kal Penn!!) and cry as much as I did in the book– but I am more excited to read Lahiri’s next work and see where she goes with her prose.
Shantaram seems to be the next brown book that Hollywood has discovered.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429087/
Why is disagreement interpreted as bashing?
I loved JL’s short stories. That couple in the first story was so wonderfully flawed. No such conflict showed up in the novel.
When did Kal Penn become a sex symbol? I’m not saying we should all look like Bollywood heroes, but I’ve met the guy, and he doesn’t stand out at all in a brown crowd. If he wasn’t a movie star, I doubt anyone would think much of him.
He is not and will never be a sex symbol. The movie is probably the same east meets west crap that has been done many times before. At least this movie will give hope to the ugly indian guys of the world.
Why are people so nasty and unkind these days?
So mean spirited and venomous?
missbrownie, show some love, don’t be so vicious, give somebody a hug, and they will hug you back, remember, love is better than hate, and a smile is better than a sneer! 😀
Because ‘disagreement’ is meant to be somewhat civil, and a personal opinion, rather than vicious generalizations by people who have never read the book. Read the comments above to find what I’m talking about.
I don’t know if I’d call Shantaram a brown book. It was written by a white Australian who lived in India. But anyway, it’s still noteworthy.
Hear, Hear!!!
I wouldn’t put it this harshly, but to some degree I can understand the sentiment. Let’s be honest here. Why does an average looking guy (Kal) get to hook up with two women who look like models (Zuleikha Robinson and Jacinda Barrett)? Do you honestly think people would be open to a reverse scenario?
Was there an open casting call for the role, you thinks? Or was it all agent/agent bhai-bhai?
Actually, I think India is both diverse (by some measures, the world’s most diverse country) and could sustain an arthouse cinema circuit. The problem in India is the same problem the US had before the late 60s. The industry is run as an oligopoly by the major studios and the entrenched interests make it hard for indie cinema to break in. I think it’s instructive to review a brief history of American cinema (below), which at one time looked like Bollywood with its musical spectacles. Sidenote: Mira Nair is also credited as a producer on the film, hence why she made the decidedly non-artistic decision to move the story to NYC.
Was there an open casting call for the role, you thinks?
Do you seriously believe Kal Penn would have made it if it were a truly open casting call?
Umang,
Saw American in Paris last weekend….The ballet done to a Gershwin score was out of this world!
Ennis, I’m sure this has been said zillions of times, but Bollywood is, in fact, escapist fare. It probably means different things for different people, but for a middle-class Indian person, it’s an idealized view of life, where characters don’t have to face the rigors of daily grind in India. It needs to be watched with a different frame of mind than Western movies, and I seriously doubt anyone thinks they are ‘realistic’ in a strict sense. We (Indian audiences) are probably better at suspending disbelief, I guess.
There is definitely a neo-realistic movement starting with Dil Chahta Hai, but again the ‘realism’ is relative and probably apparent only to those who have watched movies from different eras and have something to compare with.
I don’t have a problem with people disliking B’wood coz it has songs and dances etc, it’s their choice (and their loss, but that’s just IMHO 🙂 ). There are good and bad movies everywhere, the good Bollywood movies can be as much art as any other kind of movie to those who love it. I would expect other people to respect that choice and view even if they don’t appreciate it themselves, and not trash an entire form of artistic expression.
Well, pairing average looking guys with superhot women is something that happens fairly often, in Hollywood and elsewhere. Jack Nicholson and Anil Kapoor are routinely paired with actresses who are more attractive than them by several orders of magnitude.
Was there an open casting call for the role, you thinks? Or was it all agent/agent bhai-bhai?
I heard that Abhishek Bachchan was gonna play Gogol at first, don’t know what happened to that. My friend’s cousin actually got a role as Gogol’s sis when she was small, but she got cut cuz of budgets…they were gonna use 3 girls to play Gogol’s sisters at different ages…but I guess they decided to save money and use one girl for the role.
About as likely as Keanu Reeves making it if there was open casting in any movie he’s ever been in. I’m sure Kal Penn was chosen for his proven marketability (not talent) as an Indian-American actor.
I think Kal Penn is handsome. Yeah, he’s not a pretty boy like Hrithik, Saif or Vivek, but he’s not hard to look at. He’s got this refreshing look about him. He’s not a supermodel like John Abraham, and that’s a good thing. I bet Roshan Seth and Naseeruddin Shah looked just like him when they were younger.
Besides, he’s a good actor: you never feel like he’s fussing with the role. (And since the role called for a young male ABD actor, and he’s almost the only one we’ve got, it’s a lucky thing he’s good. An Indian would have been so wrong for this role).
Tangentially, Om Puri is decidedly not handsome. But I’d watch him in anything. The screen’s not only, or even primarily, for pretty people.
Huh? How? Why?
…of sufficient profile to carry a movie.
Feel free to name the others.
1.Truly Open Casting Call
2.If accent was a problem,every call enter employee in India. 🙂