What’s In a Name?
The Namesake explores cultural disjunction in an Indian-American family.
By Mythili Rao, New York University
Wednesday March 28, 2007
A September 1999 Newsweek interview with Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri—at the time, an O. Henry Award winner for her short story “Interpreter of Maladies” recognized for “her deft depiction of cultural disorientation”—revealed a poised young writer somewhat overwhelmed with her own success. “It’s all been a surprise—getting an agent, an editor, a book contract—it was all so fast,” she told Newsweek’s Vibhuti Patel. Lahiri seemed keenly aware of her work’s limitations. “Growing up in two countries, I see things in a way that not everyone around me can,” she told Newsweek. “I’d talk to my cousins about what life’s like in America and still know that they’ll never get it because they haven’t been here. Talking to Americans about India is the same—it’s always partial. As a storyteller, I’m aware that there are limitations in communication.”
Despite Lahiri’s modest assessment of her reach as a storyteller, her work has found a remarkably broad audience. Her 2000 story collection Interpreter of Maladies spent five weeks on the national bestseller charts, becoming the first original trade paperback collection to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The collection was launched with a 17,500-copy printing, but over the next three years this figure grew to 650,000. Lahiri’s second book, a novel about a Bengali family’s immigration to the Northeast United States—which parallels Lahiri’s own life story—met similar success. Within a year, the original 100,000-copy first printing jumped to 150,000. The novel even made a cameo appearance on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” when Ray’s wife, Debra, was seen reading the book in bed.
Not surprisingly, Lahiri’s catapult from unknown grad student to award-winning literary sensation raised a few eyebrows. Literary scholar Gita Rajan noted, “Some remarked that the politics of global publishing being what they are and the fact that Arundhati Roy had won the Booker Prize indicated that it was time for the United States to play catch-up, which made Lahiri the appropriate (and felicitous) candidate for the Pulitzer.” And the politics of global film-making being what they are, The Namesake’s commercial success also made it an ideal candidate for a film adaptation. Director Mira Nair, of Monsoon Wedding fame, was quick to snatch up the rights and begin work on the film version, which opened in select theaters last week.
Recent movies like Bride and Prejudice (2004), Bend it Like Beckham (2002), and Monsoon Wedding (2001) all have starred Indian actors facing multicultural dilemmas. The Namesake is different: It focuses almost entirely on a unique kind of hyphenated American experience. Of course, The Namesake is hardly the first immigration tale to grace the big screen. The coming-to-America plotline—like the coming-of-age plotline—is an old favorite. The Namesake is both a classic American immigration tale and a more exotic look into Indian culture. And while it could be trite to structure a story about immigrants around the ways in which one’s name itself becomes intricately wound in issues of identity and belonging, The Namesake’s careful variation on this theme manages to escape cliché: The name Ashima and Ashoke’s son resists is not Bengali or even Indian, but Russian—Gogol.
Just as in the novel, it is this touch—the exploration of the layers of identity for an Indian-American with a Russian name—that sets the The Namesake apart and gives the film its vitality. On star Kal Penn’s blog, a poster asked the actor, “Did you have similar struggles about identity like Gogol did? I think that’s what will make it so relatable—the finding an identity aspect,” Penn side-steps, responding, “Gogol’s identity struggles aren’t really set the way many people are assuming. He’s the American kid of Indian parents, and has a Russian name. Not your everyday identity cliché by any means, and I think that made him a very interesting character to play as opposed to the generic ‘east vs. west’ identity struggle.” True, but Gogol’s discomfort with his name is also unmistakably complicated by his relationship with his heritage. And Penn—who himself changed his name from Kalpen Modi to Kal Penn after childhood—probably knows a thing or two about identity crises. So why not say so? Penn’s measured answer reveals a hesitance toward promoting the movie as the very breakthrough depiction of the Indian-American experience that it clearly strives to be.
The line the film seems intent on straddling (marketing certain stereotypes without entirely succumbing to them) is a fine one indeed, and there are scenes—clueless girl friend Maxine’s overplayed first visit to the Ganguli home stands out in particular—that lack the balance this effort requires. But on the whole, the predominantly positive critical response the film is getting suggests that most are finding The Namesake successful in telling an original story with wide appeal. Variety’s Scott Foundas addressed the film’s mainstream box-office prospects directly in his review. “Fox Searchlight can expect above-average arthouse business for this audience-pleasing March release,” he writes. “Though the condensing of Lahiri’s episodic, decades-spanning narrative into two compact hours of screen-time makes for a pic occasionally overstuffed with incident, The Namesake remains a richly compelling story of family and self-discovery.” The generality of Foundas’s language may in fact penetrate what’s giving The Namesake a real shot in box offices: As “a richly compelling story of family and self-discovery” the film is well-poised to appeal to audience members of all races who value stories about families and American-ness.
But what about the film’s role as a rare cinematic depiction of a story iconic to two generations of Indian-Americans? Another poster on Penn’s blog asks, “Do you think this movie will break some of the fixed ideas people have about Indian (specifically Bengali) culture and people?” Penn again bypasses the heart of the question, replying, “My aim in playing Gogol was to be true to the character. With that said, if there were wedding scenes or language differences and so on, we did usually have consultants advising us on authenticity; so far as I recall, those things are true to life.” Authenticity consultants? Strange but true: With a film like The Namesake, the ethnic becomes an artistic detail to be professionally tended to during the course of production—like costume design or a stage prop—to make sure the finished product is seamless.
And to Nair’s credit, on the whole, the bid for authenticity works. As the child of Indian immigrants who arrived in this country in the 1970s (just like Ashoke and Ashima in the novel), I knew that I’d find much to relate to in the story—and, in its fictionalized variations from the particular first-generation realities I know, plenty to disagree with. But what I couldn’t have anticipated was the impact of uncannily lifelike details—like the sight of the same model Samsonite suitcase my parents own—on the big screen. Storytelling wouldn’t be what it is without elisions and illusions, discrepancies and adulteration. But The Namesake so lovingly sets about getting it right that the moments when it misses—in emphasis, pacing, or melodrama—feel as plausible as the distortions of memory.
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