magnuslhad An Indian man takes his new bride to America, where they raise a family and tackle everyday struggles of migration and identity. The Namesake is an exploration of what it means to be Indian and living in the diaspora. At times this is dealt with in a rather obvious and mundane manner, such as when the American girlfriend of second-generation Indian Gogol is too touchy-feely with older Indians, and wears the wrong colour clothes to a funeral. The lack of freshness and imagination in the cultural clashes is compensated for by a depth in charaterisation and subtlety in the depiction of family relations. The cinematography too depicts India as colourful and vibrant, but America is always muted, gray, and at times speckled with snow. India has been left behind for material and career gains, the pictures say, but something soulful and human has been lost in the process. This is slow-burn film, with no huge dramatic arcs, but instead full of the small dramas of day-to-day life authentically and sincerely depicted. This is a love-letter to the Indian experience of migration, diaspora and loss.

geeta_v_g As a daughter of two immigrant Indian parents, I could perfectly identify myself with the main character: the inner struggles during high school to fit in the Western world while realizing you cannot change your roots and culture. This movie was a huge eye opener to me, and many others who grow up in two different cultures and the most beautiful part is the realization that there is no superior culture. One must accept and find out what matters most and only then one can be truly free and happy.

KineticSeoul This is a great family values and tradition movie I seen and has quite a bit of heart to it. The story has two focus basically on Ashoke the husband and Ashima the mother and how they met which is basically through an arrangement. And how they have Indian roots but moved to America and how they cope with the cultures and traditions of a different country. But most of the story revolves around Gogol(Kal Penn) who is the son of Ashoke and Ashima and him being adapted to the American cultures and traditons and how his family feels like he is losing his Indian roots. And the value of family because of the choices he makes. This is a touching flick that has heart and deals with Gogol's walking a path to his Indian roots. This is a heartfelt movie that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. During the credits it says "for our parents who gave us everything" and this movie shows this in a touching way.8.3/10

aliaksar2000 The story of an immigrant couple and dilemma of the second generation immigrants are well portrayed in the film in general sense. What makes the movie good is its universal language. You can replace Indian immigrants with Chinese, Turks, Romanian, Arabs or others, you can replace the US with England, Australia or else. The story's main lines won't change. An eye-catching characteristics of the movie is its little warm and memorable moments. Especially during the first quarter of the movie, while two main characters, Ashima and Ashoke introduced. This is a plus for movies itself, but little bit arguable for the story. They are like warm touches to a sensitive issue. It makes you feel sympathy for the characters (and immigrants) and wants you to take a side in the issue, while the story never touches to the other side of the coin such as adaptation and cultural problems of immigrants or conservative structure of their lives. The story focuses on a most typical issue on immigrants dilemma in the living countries; Their names: their identities. Which gives a clue from which culture, from which religion you are coming from. Something that sometimes you are proud of and something that sometimes you wish /have to change. Self-criticism is missing in the movie. However, the movie doesn't claim that it is discussing the immigrant issue as a whole. Based on personal experience of an Indian immigrant in the States. So we can forgive that flaw. The movies have the audience's attention easily, flows smoothly. A big plus for the film is it's reaching to its target without any difficulty; the western societies, which continuously welcome ten thousands of immigrant from every corner of the world. So it gives us an extra idea to understand immigrants better, who are clamped, stuck and lost between two lives, two cultures. Sometimes the film repeats its gender's clichés (shrinking clothing washed by Ashima; Ashima's saying she had been missing India for years, then now she would miss The US, etc) but we also see some original approaches like Ashima's memorable quote "Do you want me say 'I love you' like Americans." As for the cinematic structure of the film, personally I don't think that transition in Gogol's personality/life looks very well real. It seems to be little bit rushed. This is not actor's fault anyway. Other than this, Kal Penn's performance is strong. I find her wife's performance little bit overacted. Although we have seen Alex's parents very briefly, we have a good idea about their life style. On the other side, Gogol's parents life could be digged little bit more. The movie's music, cinematography and general atmosphere don't take any risk and follow the film grammar closely. We don't see any cinematic essay, original tricks, surprising editing or else (that's why the movie losses 2 point in my opinion) but we see a smooth, easily-read, nicely done movie. (that's why the movie gets 8 points)Overall: 8 over 10.January 2009, Montreal