The Namesake

Director: Mira Nair, Mira Nair

2006 / 122min / 35mm

Based on the novel of the same name by Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, Nair’s gentle, humane, and ultimately heart-wrenching diaspora drama stars Kal Penn as Nikhil “Gogol” Ganguli, the American-born son of West Bengali immigrants (Bollywood stars Irrfan Khan and Tabu, both superlative) who, followed from his teenage years through to the rite of passage that is the death of a parent, grows from rebellion against to a new appreciation of his cultural heritage. The familiar story of tradition in a tug-of-war with modernity is put across with a vigor and intelligence—and Elmes’s high-finish photography doesn’t hurt—that renders it entirely fresh.

35mm print courtesy of the DGA Motion Picture Industry Conservation Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive

Discussion after the film between director Mira Nair and cinematographer Fred Elmes on Sunday, April 14th