Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Namesake (2006) - Nair succeeds with poignant immigrant tale

10/20/2021

The Namesake (2006) - Nair succeeds with poignant immigrant tale

♥♥♥♥

Warm colors adorn this pleasant poster for Mira Nair's The Namesake

Gogol grows up with Indian parents in the US, where he becomes Nick. But following his father's death, he reassumes his birth identity as Gogol, while his cultural division is not without its hurdles.

The Namesake is written by Sooni Taraporevala (Mississippi Masala (1991)), adapting the same-titled 2003 novel by Jumpa Lahiri (The Lowland (2013)), and directed by Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay! (1988)).

The Namesake is a colorful account of fate, beautiful in a way, and it is a terrific contemporary portrayal of a problematic life as a second-generation immigrant in the West.

The acting is fair, and the great challenge of filming this 30-year spanning story succeeds commendably. The Namesake is in a way perhaps almost too well-meaning to really take new ground.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 9.5 mil. $

Box office: 20.3 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.13 times its cost)

[The Namesake premiered 2 September (Telluride Film Festival) and runs 121 minutes. Shooting took place from March - June 2005 in India, including in Calcutta, Sydney, Australia, New York, Denver, Colorado and in Boston, Massachusetts. The film opened #26 to a 248k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #12 and in 335 theaters (different weeks), grossing 13.5 mil. $ (66.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were India with 1.8 mil. $ (8.9 %) and the UK with 1 mil. $ (4.9 %). The film was nominated for an Independent Spirit award and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Nair returned with 3 shorts prior to her theatrical return with Amelia (2009). Kal Penn (We Are Men (2013, TV-series)) returned in Deck the Halls (2006); Irrfan Khan (Haider (2014)) in Deadline: Sirf 24 Ghante (2006); and Tabu (Khanjar (2003)) in Sarhad Paar (2006). The Namesake is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

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Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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10/20/2021

The Namesake (2006) - Nair succeeds with poignant immigrant tale

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