Gogol…the name sounds to be little strange, right? But this was the name which Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli kept for their beloved little son. And Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘The Namesake’ is a story about Ashima, Ashoke and Gogol. I haven’t read any of Lahiri’s work before. But I would like to say that ‘The Namesake’ is really a very well written piece of work.
The variance which Ashima finds in the Western culture from the Indian one, her loneliness even after having her husband so close to her self, the emotional attachment with the families left far behind in the traditional houses of Calcutta, an emergence of new life on the Pemberton Road where she strives to find her own new identity is all which is described in the first half of the book. The rest part revolves around her son Gogol, who is unhappy about his strange name, who finds it difficult to relate with the Indian culture in which their parents were born and brought up, who undergoes a several failure in his relationships with the women who came in his life. He even goes to an extent to change his name from Gogol to Nikhil. With the passage of time, he regrets about what he has done…at last, feels guilty that this was the same name which saved his father Ashoke from entering the doors of heaven.
Jhumpa Lahiri, very articulately, describes minute details of their lives, depicting each and every scene with much needed warmth and affection. The end too is wonderful!
And hands down to Mira Nair, who translates this saga into a beautiful illustration of a motion picture where Tabu, Irfan Khan and Kal Penn plays Ashima, Ashoke and Gogol. Apart from well written screenplay by Sooni Tareporewala and outstanding direction by Mira, Tabu, Irrfan Khan and Kal Penn excels in making their characters as real as possible.
Some people who have read the book first, opine that the movie was much better than the book. Since in my case it was otherwise, that I read the book after watching the movie, I think I loved the book equally.
A saga worth reading and watching!
