‘The Namesake’ trailer
The trailer for The Namesake looks fabulous, 35mm doused in regret, and not just for its greater 2nd gen focus than Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel. Director Mira Nair cast a bushel of eye candy: model Jacinda Barrett (Bridget Jones 2) plays the WASP girlfriend, Tabbu turns auntie into MILF, and part-desi actress Zuleikha Robinson plays Gogol’s eventual wife (via SM). But the trailer could’ve done without the Taj Mahal cliché.
Penn is well cast in the lead. Nair’s original choice, Abhishek Bachchan, has neither an American accent nor any acting ability of note, save in-jokes paying tribute to his famous ‘familias in every frickin’ movie. Irfan Khan looks soulful, but too young to play Penn’s dad; he reminds me of the pitiable father in Caterina Va in Città (Caterina in the Big City). Craggy character actor Gabriel Byrne is also on board.
Sooni Taraporevala wrote the screenplay. She’s a longtime sidekick of Nair’s who also wrote Mississippi Masala and Salaam Bombay.
The movie comes out the same day, Nov. 3, as Borat, the comedy starring Ali G. See both, na?
Sacha Baron Cohen portrays Kazakhstan’s sixth most famous man and a leading journalist from the State run TV network in the comedy “Borat”. [Link]
on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006, 7:32 pm in Film, Literature › 
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and just for kicks - let me add - that i find that guy bachan to be really odd looking - the only thing i remember from this really forgettable movie is this guys giant ass - he is really built like a grandmother - ok and i’m jealous of him - gets to run around trees wiht babes, is probably a multi-mill already - so ok - a little bitter sniping wont hort.
i’m looking at the pic above and i find that woman in the saree really burning hot… and she’s supposed to be the mamma right? .. i think i have the right to feel disturbed. omg.
hey UB admin - the second trailer link goes back to the namesake… (any options with windowsmediaplyr btw)
“wahhh wahh! my name is Gogol and, well, that just sounds crazy on resumes! can’t i like, change it, to, ummm, say, like, Gregory and stuff?? wahh wahh!!”
surely there was (and is) more to the immigrant experience than My Funny Sounding Indian Name? i mean, what with all the other things going on, like assimilated isolationism, child abuse, religious compartmentalization and faithlessness?
and i’m speaking *broadly* of this while trying not to assess the movie’s [screenplay's] ability to observe traits endemic of a culture’s semi-successful transplantation.
oh, whatever. if i can gag through the noxiousness that was “Water” and still come out alive, i suppose i can just as happily chew on the mind-numbing platitudes of “The Namesake” and not fall ill.
Point taken, but he actually changes his name to… Nikhil.
[...] To start off, the blog kicks off with The Namesake, a movie adapted by Mira Nair from a book by Jhumpa Lahiri [hat tip: Aaron]. The trailer sure looks interesting and I would be definitely waiting for this one. Manish over at his new blog, Ultra Brown is pretty impressed with the trailer as well and has some more tidbits to share. [...]
I think Tabu is the perfect choice as Gogols’ mother. She can be really subtle…just as she was in Astitva. I just hope though the ending is complete and does not leave us wanting more as it did in the book.
Sacha Baron Cohen deserves his own post, but he’s not really brown, or ultrabown, but he is ultrafunny.
I was kinda hoping for an SBC movie with all the characters in full force, maybe even interviewing each other. Imagine Borat interviewing Ali G and Bruno, that would be crazy.
Despite the easy-out shot of the Taj Mahal (because nowhere in the book does it say the fateful train ride goes past the Taj), I think I’m really going to like this movie. You may make fun of my girly-ness now.
There is, if they don’t veer much from the book.
I *finally* saw the trailer and I admit, for once, I am looking forward to seeing a Mira Nair film.
Goodness, Sooni Taraporevala is NOT a “sidekick” of Mira Nair…! She is a full fledged partner. She and Mira were equal partners doing street kid workshops for Salaam Bombay, the research for Mississippi Masala, and more. Where would Mira be without the great script? I’ve learned that Sooni is an unusual screenwriter– originally a professional photographer, she is always on set for the shootings, and photographs the makings of her films. Amazing. It sucks that directors get to “own” a film so to speak, and screenwriters, whose words they are bringing to life, never are in the public eye.