The Namesake

Finally reached the theater fighting against all odds...starting with an annoying friend who's always late for everything..then getting a bad review about the movie and deciding to watch something else...reaching 5 mins late (anyone who knows me even reasonably well knows how much i HATE being late for movies)...then dropping the plan for the movie cuz the rest of the options were crap...and so on...but then after some yelling and name calling and tense silences, decided to stick with the plan and watch "The Namesake" by Mira Nair...starring Irrfan and Tabu and Kalpen Modi (better known as Kal Penn)...

Well...the two things that struck me the moment we entered the hall were
1) there was a fairly decent crowd in the hall unlike what i had expected
2) the crown was 100% American!
Gladdened my heart to see Americans watching a movie made by an indian about indians...guess mira nair is a big name after all...

Ok..first...the review - One of the best movies i have ever seen...driven by powerhouse performances by the lead cast..i wont deny tht it felt weird watching the characters speak in bengali for a bit of the first part of the movie and having to read the subtitles..but got used to it soon...the film is very subtle and is handled with a lot of sensitivity...it has some great moments, mostly involving Irfan Khan...the film begins with tabu coming to the US after getting married to Irfan..and the first day, for breakfast, she takes some rice krispies in a bowl, and instead of adding milk, she adds red chilly powder and some peanuts to it....just like we have farsan back home...i saw some surprised faces in the audience and i had to really fight the urge to explain to them what just happened....

the film moves lightning fast, unlike what most people have said and a lot happens in that span of just over 2 hours...i did not quite get the logic of the part when the father explains to his son the reason behind his kinda funny name....but all in all the movie moves you in many different ways..and to sum it up you will HAVE to do 2 things when the movie ends:
1) wipe your tears
2) call your father

Make sure you don't miss this one..