“The Namesake”, adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel shows us an amazing picture of two generations, who came from Calcutta.
The movie begins with a man in the train, reading “The Overcoat ”, written by famous Russian author Nikolai Gogol. The man, called Ashoke, is an ordinary Indian, who likes reading and this is his way of travelling. However, this time he is not able to enjoy the book as the friendly stranger starts the talk with him. The stranger advises him to leave India, discover other countries and expand his horizons, as Gogol did. Suddenly, the train crash interrupted their conversation. Ashoke survives and lying later in the bed, he understands, that the Gogol’s book is a guide in his life, it was the impetus to move to the USA.
Even so, Ashoke does not forget about the place, where his heart is and returns to India to find his wife.
The first meeting with his future wife is shown with special charm. Ashima, previously acquainted with potential husbands, falls in love firstly with Ashoke’s shoes and later with him. She understands, that the life will be hard in the other country with cold winters, where she knows nobody, but her husband. Despite this, she proudly reads the English poem and is ready to love and support her husband in New York. The marriage of people, who do not know each other may seem incomprehensible to us. We used to meet, date, communicate and live together before the marriage.
“The Namesake” shows us completely different way of marriage. Although, they have hardly known each other, the relationship between Ashoke and Ashima is very strong and develops throughout the film. The way they treat each other is something, that can not happen in every couple. When getting acquainted both seem watchful and submissive. They are Indians, and traditions and customs play very important role in their lives. The submissiveness is also seen in New York. Ashima writes positive letters to her parents, despite feeling uncomfortable. I doubt, that many people in our country can be so understanding and faithful to their family. Many women will diverse and return home, but not Ashima. I see her as an example of a loyal family woman, who devotes her life to the family. Ashoke also do everything he can to make their lives more comfortable and happy. To my mind, this is how the marriage should look like.
When the young couple immigrate to the United States they face with many difficulties. They live in a small flat, Ashima does not have the job and friends, the couple does not know each other. Ashima does not know how to use a washing machine, spoils Ashoke’s cloth, which grows in the first quarrel. However the couple quickly copes with.
They talk, discover each other, and tentatively make love. All seems so easy and right, maybe, because, this is a marriage that was arranged between the right two people, and their respect and deep love only grow. Their love gives them two children: Gogol and Sonia.
Becoming parents and wanting a better future for Gogol, the couple decides to stay in the US. They are a happy family, who sometimes travel, sometimes quarrel, but always support each other. As far, as I am concerned, parenthood makes the family closer, makes the two people really a Family. But is it so easy to be parents in the country, where you have no relatives, no support? In the country, where almost all customs are unfamiliar to you. In my opinion, it is really a challenge. The challenge was to bring up the children in the Indian culture. The challenge was to earn enough and to our couple the challenge was even to give their children their names.
When Gogol is born, the couple is told that the baby cannot leave the hospital without a name. In India years can pass before a child is given a formal name. Ashoke impulsively calls his son Gogol, which causes a lot of misunderstanding later.
The name was inspired by his father’s favorite author. Being satisfied with his name from an early age, becoming a young man, Gogol wants to change his name to look more solid. He changes his name to Nikolai, Gogol’s first name. The ambivalence about his temporary name, which he adopts, then rejects, becomes a metaphor for his divided cultural identity.
Once at school, he heard Gogol’s biography and classmates mocked at him. Gogol understands, that the name makes him extraordinary. Becoming mature, willing to become an architect after visiting the Taj with the family, he was finally convinced that he needs to change the name. Deeply inside, he finds himself an Indian, but outside he is an American teenager, who smokes, drinks and listen to rock music.
The romantic relationships play a significant role in his life. Firstly, he meets an American girlfriend called Maxine. He warns her, that no kissing and touching in his parents home. It seems very strange to her and seemed a cultural gap. The movie shows that the children do not always follow the scripts of their parents. Gogol understands later, that they are too different and marries a Bengali girl Moushumi. Although, their marriage was not successful as she betrayed him, this relationship reveals Gogol as a man, who is an Indian inside, who likes that marriage ceremony and was ready to live with her forever.
His sister also marries a white boy named Ben. “Times are changing,” Ashima philosophizes. Now she is not so strict with her children, she becomes more modern.
The children, firstly so rebellious and American, like Indian cultures and their marriages were very Indian. Maybe, all of us become conscious sometime. The impulse for them was the father’s death.The death is one of the touching moments in the movie. When Ashima’s father dies, it is a turning point in her life, but her husband supports her and tells her to stay strong for him, for their children. And when her husband dies years later, far away from her, it turns her world upside down. Not only Ashima, but her children, especially Gogol, experience the loss. He shaves his head, begins to read Gogol’s books, find himself in Indian culture and miss his father a lot. He stays with his mother and when she decides to return to India, he supports her. The death helps each of them to find themselves, it connects them and makes them closer. From the Indian point of view, the death is just the beginning, and it was the beginning to every member of the family.
Possibly,critics of more inclusive immigration laws will view this family as immigrants, who should live in India, in their motherland. What have they forgot in the US, with its laws and freedom? But, as I see it, the couple wanted the good life for their children, and this deserves praise.
All in all, it is an amazing picture of two generations of an American family, who come from Calcutta. The older generation is based on the timeless traditions of loyalty, love, family, debt. Junior has lost the roots of their historical homeland, and most of the moral values that the traditional Indian society relies on. They - Americans are pragmatic, cut off from the house after sixteen. Everything changes with the death of his father, who brilliantly played by Irrfan Khan. It was a hard but important lesson for Gogol, the protagonist of the picture. He remains somewhere on the border of two worlds: the world, where his parents came from, and the world in which he must live. At the end of the movie there is no doubt that he did find the harmony between them.
