This will probably be my most personal review on letterboxd, so bear with me if you do read through all of it.This is probably the closest I will ever see to my own story taking place in a movie. I am a first generation Indian-American, son of two immigrants. My dad, who initially lived here, also went to India, got an arranged marriage, and moved back with his wife, my mother. We also live in New York City, just like the movie shows, and I also have a younger sibling, who coincidentally, his name is Nikhil. This will be the closest I could ever see to my own family in a movie. When the movie began, my mother was with me, and told me how much she could relate to Tabu’s character. The confusion with the laundry, the struggle to speak English and the heavy accent, and just having that one friend who understood you, it was all part of her story too. She even told me how she told my father that she wanted to move back to India when my brother was born, and sent him to India to figure it out, only for him to come back empty handed. And I’m glad that the plan did not work out. As you can all see, my name is Sahil. It’s not a conventional name by any means, and it doesn’t have much meaning behind it either, just something my uncle came up with when I was just born. I got used to my name being mispronounced. I would fix it once but it would go back to being mispronounced the same way. I just did not care to fix it, even tho it made my mom annoyed whenever my teachers would call me by something weirdly different that what she did. I had even gotten used to being gained for having a different name from everyone else, and it reached a head in middle school. There was this one specific kid who decided to mispronounce my name, and basically make a joke about it. Everyone, instead of condemning it, contributed to it. They would all laugh at me and continue pronouncing my name like that, even getting to the point where I was in math class and the whole class (including the teacher), was laughing. I would just sit idly by and listen to it. It made me wish I had a different name, like how Gogol says. It made me question why my parents gave me this Indian name when everyone else had names such as Aaron and David. It made me even linger on the thought of changing my full name when I got older. I’ve never had a film confront me and comfort me about these feelings like this one. Seeing Gogol do what he did, and the consequences, those thoughts, whichever were still left, have vanished. My family gave me a name, and that will always be my name, no matter what happens, and I am proud of it. Moving on, I saw a lot of my own parents, and even grandparents, in Ashoke and Ashima. My grandparents hold on more to their traditional beliefs compared to my parents, but I still ended up seeing my mother and father in Ashoke and Ashima. I’ve never been the closest to my dad, he was constantly and work and would come back exhausted at the end of the day, but I always knew he loved and cared for me. Me and him would have similar talks to how Gogol and Ashoke talked, and I have comfort in those moments. Seeing Gogol get older and drift away from his parents felt like a stab in the chest. I realized the potential path I was going down, sitting there next to my mom, realizing that I could be doing the same exact thing. Slowly drifting, leaving her in the dust, as if she had never existed. I realized that I could never do that to my parents, no matter what happens. I could tell my mom knows this too, as she was watching along with me. She knows the impact having family in the United States has had, and she never wants to be in the same place Ashima was in. I am so grateful to have a mother who pushed to get used to life here, for the sake of herself and her children. I’ll always be grateful for the struggle my parents went through to make sure that I have the life that I have right now, so that I did not have to live like they did. The Namesake has provided me with comfort, love, and a message to always stay true to myself, and not go down the same path Gogol did. While I couldn’t relate to the character himself in many ways, I found myself in his experiences and his struggles, and it was so overwhelming. I didn’t know these feelings could be put onto screen. Story time and emotional ranting aside, this film is wonderful. On all technical levels it works, and I was particularly a fan of the simple yet beautiful cinematography. All of the cast give sincere and heartfelt performances, even tho Kal Penn’s face in the beginning really annoyed me. Tabu’s quiet yet heartbreaking performance broke me. Irrfan Khan was such an immense talent and I am saddened by the fact that he passed away so soon. He will always be remember by his wonderful acting performances. I loved it and I cannot recommend it enough. I am looking forward to seeing more from Mira Nair.
