Pajiba

I JUST finished this book last night-I was hoping the movie wouldn't be overly sentimental, since Lahiri's prose is so gorgeous without being cloying. I'm still excited to see it though.

Max's family sounds very much like Lahiri's description of them in the book; unless they're ridiculously over the top I'd blame Lahiri rather than the movie...

That's true Erin, their decadent lifestyle, attractiveness...all of it is very concurrent with the novel. I loved that book so much, I immediately gave it to my roommate last night, as she's going to India next weekend.

Interesting. Harold and Kumar is an idiotic movie, which happens to coincidentally be howlingly funny. And after watching it, I realized something weird - both of them are pretty decent actors. It's good to see Penn do something besides get high or get kicked in the nuts or do bit parts in Superman Returns.

Both The Namesake and The Interpreter of Maladies (collection of short stories for which she won a Pulitzer Prize) are very well written and enjoyable, so I've wanted to hear Pajiba's take on the movie. It sounds like it passes, which is great news. I'm pleased that Penn's performance does the book justice.

Thanks, Pajiba!

I've read the book and seen the movie; I fully expected this to be like most adaptations from brilliant, beautiful novels - deeply disappointing. However, I found about 99% of the movie dead-on. The Ganguli's kitchen in that small apartment was exactly how I pictured it when I read the book; Max's parents' place in the Hamptons was just how I pictured that, too. The movie was so well done that, even though I knew what the "personal crisis" was and when it was coming, I still nearly cried when it happened. Without the use of screeching, swelling music or soft focus to set the mood, this movie was a wonderful adaptation and a gorgeous, touching movie all on its own, I think.

I adored "The Namesake", but the shift of venue from Boston to NYC in the movie is a travesty. I'm sure there are sound reasons for it, but it really robbed the story of some of its geographical specificity. I much, much preferred the book to the movie, which I found a bit heavy-handed.

i was crushed when i found out the movie was going to be set in New York. Is that really the only city Hollywood gets? i felt like the boston setting int the book added some unique personality that unfortunately, New York has long been stripped of.

...her parents have to look like the type of beatific middle-aged early retirees featured in erection-drug ads, sitting in wooden chairs on a perfectly manicured lawn, a healthy, bounding dog by their side, happily welcoming Nick into the glossy catalog pages of the Good American Life.

Erin and Julie have mentioned this above, but it's true: that's what Maxine's parents are like in the book. You can hardly fault Mira Nair for this characterization, John. While reading that part of Lahiri's book I kept picturing one of the wholesome upper-middle aged Yuppie couples in a L.L. Bean/Eddie Bauer catalog.

Sounds good I'll give it a try. And Harold and Kumar coming together nicely can be summed up thusly: Neil Patrick Harris.

Finally, I was waiting for this review. I didn't get to see the film due to it's limited release. It seems worth watching if I can find a theater.

Katie, I couldn't agree w/ you more. Truly, no offense to NY or anyone who lives there, but I'm so tired of Hollywood portraying any film that takes place in the city to be NY. It's really tiring.

At the risk of being pedantic, I need to correct something - the book takes place initially in Cambridge and then in the Boston suburbs (though Gogol moves to NYC after college). As a Masshole, I know that Cambridgians and Bostonians consider the two cities entirely different animals :).

I saw it last week. I went in knowing almost nothing about it other than having seen the trailer and a couple of other Nair films.

Having a fairly white bread life, I enjoyed learning more about Hindu/Bengali culture and seeing some non-Travel Channel views if India.

The story had no great surprises -- couple struggles to adapt to each other and a new land, their children struggle with identity and each eventually finds her/his niche -- but I enjoyed the tone, the details and certainly the look. Nice way to spend a couple of hours.

Samantha T - the snotty, annoying Cambridge residents would rush to tell you that they are Cantibridgians.

But it's always nice to have another Masshole around.

Tho' I enjoyed the movie, I found that it fell a little short in the third act. Gogol's 'return' due to a personal crisis was expected, but when the results of those decisions came to bite him in the butt, it was more of a footnote than character arc.

Saw the movie, it's good, worth the time. Yeah, it falls apart a little at the end, but that doesn't ruin it.

To call the actress Tabu "strikingly pretty" is kind of inadequate. She's freakin' gorgeous.

Rebecca: OK, I fault Nair AND Lahiri.

LL: OK, she's freakin' gorgeous. That's what I was getting at.

The Namesake is one of the best books I've read this year. I can't imagine how Nair can translate Lahiri's gorgeous prose onto screen. Nonetheless, I am very excited about seeing the film.

Pajibites: READ THE BOOK. It's beautifully written, even if you find the plot too sentimental for your taste.

When's The Hobbit coming out?

The early scenes of her adjustment (and lack thereof) to a new environment are among the most moving and beautifully detailed in the film.

They were also the ONLY moving and beautifully detailed parts of the film, in my opinion. I found the rest of it ridiculously disjointed, with scenes existing for no reason at all, and "emotional" events that don't resonate because there was no previous emotional investment to begin with. I walked out before it ended, which I very rarely do.

My favorite line in the movie is when Maxine, after breaking his heart, turns to Nikhil and says, "This isn't going to work just because we're both Indian." Someone should've had the forethought to explain this to Nair and Lahiri. The beauty in Lahiri's novel lies in her comingling of the old and the new, India and America, allowing her characters to remember who they were in order to create who they are. Nair can't seem to make this work - there's almost a discomfort with the idea that immigrants have the ability to carve out a niche in a new land while still maintaining some of what they left behind. The movie only comes alive when the family travels back to India (the cheapest comical shot, I thought, was of the manservant running after Gogol as he takes off for a run). The vibrant colors that have become Nair's signature trademark seem to exist only in the world that the Gangulis have left behind. Ultimately, this is the reason the movie fails for me.

am I the only one who didn't like the book? I really enjoyed the short story collection by Lahiri and agree that they were beautiful and moving, but I thought the novel was entirely too boring. her talents are not suited for that length.. The movie has to be better for the one fact that it won't take up as much of your life as reading the boringness of the book will.

For the person who said that residents of Cambridge are called Cambridgians, it's actually Cantabrigians. : ) I found it ironic and yet highly fitting that Kal Penn played a character who Americanizes his name to fit in. Kal Penn is not his real name. Great actor.

I just read "The Namesake" and I have to say, while the writing is extraordinary, the plot itself is somewhat depressing. It's very jumpy (a life changing event can happen in one paragraph, followed by 6 pages of intense soul-searching by some character) and the ending left me feeling a bit let down.
I'll still see the film if I can, but I'm hoping for something a bit more upbeat. Maybe I'm just used to the typical Hollywood happy ending.

They moved it to NYC? What a rip-off. We live in a suburb of Boston and I teach in Cambridge, and I was SO looking forward to seeing my alma mater and my current work stomping grounds gloriously shown. That was probably one of my favorite aspects of the novel - the descriptions of Harvard Square, the specificity of Gogol - newly-minted Nikhil - crossing the bridge and staring out over the Charles before walking through the Public Gardens...

At any rate, while the story is ultimately depressing, Lahiri's prose is breath-taking. I've read "Interpreter of Maladies" multiple times, and I enjoyed "The Namesake" every bit as much. I'm waiting to Netflix this one. Alas, it's hard to compress over 200 pages into 2 hours without having something lost in translation...

Ariel - exactly. I believe they're supposed to be living in Jackson Heights in the movie. Cambridge it ain't. Also, the parents just moved out to Nyack in the movie and their son was in the city. In the book, his move to NYC was a bit of a slap in the face to them. Sigh. I think they only let movies about grizzled Irish sociopaths film in Boston.