The Namesake : Cleansing the Soul
There are those you would shag and move on. And then there are those where everything comes to a standstill. There is no shock. There is no revelation in a monumental moment. There is no lightning, storm brewing up, thunderstorms.
It’s all still. Calm. Still yes. Calm outside. Yes. Calm Inside. No. Six hours after the movie, the hangover exists.
No reaction to this movie can be done in a review clinic. It should be straight from the heart. Yet, how does one react when there is a storm in the density of stillness.
I, remain, still struck by The Namesake. Never in a long time have I been stripped naked by a movie. In the darkness of the theater.
The stripping comes when you get sucked into the lives of the characters… by the characters.
I feel ashamed by seeing Ashok Ganguli’s life. Simple. Sober. Down to earth and so serene amongst the many storms of his life.
I am ashamed when I compare my life to Ashok’s. I’m ashamed when I see the largeness of Ashima’s heart in the simple straightforward innocence with which she executes the walk of her life. I’m ashamed by the freedom which Gogol receives at the end of his journey.
Ashamed cause all these real to life characters make me realize how I have faltered. How I have fallen. How I have misdirected… myself.
Some stories have plots, that drive them.
Then there are a few, where the characters hold the steering.
Holding it so tightly that you get sucked into their lives. There is no plot. No reason. It’s life. You watch them. You move with them. You walk with them… and then…
You cry with them. You laugh with them.
Jhumpa Lahiri, the writer, needs 21 gun salute.
Ditto for Mira Nair, the director and Sooni Tarapoorwala, the screenwriter.
This is not a movie. It is much more.
Much more if you were born in India and now live in a Western world. For the pin of the mirror will then sink deeper. Much deeper, than it would for the rest of the world.
There is only one way to watch The Namesake.
Bear open your soul. And then…
Let it do the cleansing.
Too high for a minuscule oz movie rating chart. Watch it. That’s my humble request.
April 11th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
in spite of umpteen other reviews - khuda kasam - jald se jald dekhenge, Oz. man, the movie must be something - this is the first time I have seen you so moved.
April 12th, 2007 at 2:07 am
Waiting to see the film. Perhaps diaspora effect is must to understand and enjoy such films.
April 12th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Bravo…Well written…oz…
I would like to add….
Watch it for the first time to be overwhelmed by everything about the movie…the story, direction, acting, even the music in fact….
Watch if for the second time to understand the beauty of the movie…to understand the sub layers…etc…
May 19th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Saw it today. Brilliant!
The day you had written this, I knew you were moved by the movie. Today I understand!
Thanks
Punds
June 22nd, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Yes. It’s not a movie, it is a mirror.