Jhumpa Lahiri's THE NAMESAKE and the Mira Nair film adaptation

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 8:18am

I just finished reading The Namesake - Pulitzer prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri's novel about two Indian immigrants who have an arranged marriage in Calcutta before moving permanently to the Boston area and their American-born son's life from infancy through about age 32. It's a very engaging first novel with the potential to be as well-received in film form as Nair's Monsoon Wedding, I thought. It wasn't until a couple of hours ago that, while googling Jhumpa Lahiri, I found that the film had already been made and is due for U.S. release this fall (after Cannes in May). Kal Penn plays the son from his teenage years onward. He seems really excited about the role (see his blog at [url]http://thenamesake.typepad.com/blog/[/url] ) and probably recognizes his character as closer to the real him than the kid he played in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

Here are some more links:
[url]http://www.bbcworld.com/content/talkingmovies_archive_23_2005.asp?pageid=665&co_pageid=4[/url]

[url]http://www.hollywood.com/movies/gallery/id/3473770[/url]


Any other word - good or bad - on this project?

P.S. I've also read Interpreter of Maladies and think that would make a great miniseries in the vein of Carnivale, Tales of the City or Upstairs/Downstairs, but more short story - oriented.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 9:21am

I absolutely adore Mira Nair's films, so I'm looking forward to this.

I have not read The Namesake yet- I have read (and loved) Interpreter of Maladies. Most people I have spoken to were really disappointed with The Namesake, but I'll have to judge for myself.

I believe Mira Nair is also adapting Homebody/Kabul for film.

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 9:35am

Why were they disappointed?

I thought it was the most quietly brilliant novel I had read since Tanizaki's Naomi, maybe even Doctorow's Ragtime. The characters were so credible.

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 11:17am

Are we the only two people here who give a damn about Jhumpa Lahiri and Mira Nair?

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 12:03pm

i give a damn about them. love mira nair -- not so much for VANITY FAIR however, and not so fond of the namesake as i am of other lahiri work.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 1:03pm

Evelyn, I didn't get into a discussion about why those people didn't like The Namesake. I haven't yet read it, so I would have nothing to offer.

I am going to read it soon.

Slight threadjack- I loved The God of Small Things. Anyone else?

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 1:30pm

God of Small Things -- absolutely.
Arundhati Roy is one of my heroes.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 2:23pm

Oh, what the hell.

Holy Cow
Death of Vishnu

2 more Indian-Lit novels that I love.

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 2:54pm

I don't read a lot of "Indian lit" per se. I tend to gravite toward authors and specific plots. Lahiri only has Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake to her credit as major works - one a collection of short stories and the other a novel - so it's hard to say which work is better. Not everyone has the patience for a novel as sensory as The Namesake, but if you do I think you'll admire Lahiri's ability to present fiction as something more like memoir (hmmm).

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 3:20pm

The Namesake is a beautiful book. I've read it twice and it sufficiently moved me both times. I'll be very interested to see how it fares as a movie.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 3:28pm

ok--real indian pop-fiction --
The Krishnavatar series --The adventures of Lord Krishna -- the most entertaining books ever! not winning any pulitzers but a fab read.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 3:30pm

LOL Will have to pick those up, Garland!

If you haven't read Holy Cow: it. is. HILARIOUS!

Sarah MacDonald was a radio DJ in Sydney when her fiancee was relocated to India. She moved with him, and her memoir is a (very cynical) account of her time in New Delhi and India.

If you've been to India, you'll laugh out loud.

Updated On: 3/29/06 at 03:30 PM

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 3:46pm

i have seen HOLY COW and always meant to get it. Krishnavatar used to be hard to get -- it's a series of 7 books. you can't even get it on amazon, but i put up a link to indiaclub.com where you can get it -- just great fun - pulp fiction stories of adventure and devotion.

first volume of Krishnavatar

Updated On: 3/29/06 at 03:46 PM

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 3:48pm

Thank you! Excited about this- will remind me of the comic books that I read as a child (that were basically all religious stories).

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 3:51pm

i have TONS of those comics! my favorites are the adventures of Shri Yogananda Paramahamsa and Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. those yogis ruled and still do! much better than spiderman.

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 4:06pm

Just out of curiosity, are you both Indian-American?

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 4:23pm

Last year I took a class on South Asian Literature, which I absolutely loved. I'm a huge fan of Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy (I was before taking that class), so it was great to further explore their works as well as others. One of the books we read was The Namesake, which I enjoyed. I hadn't heard about the film, but I'm anxious to see it now.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 4:35pm

Evelyn- I am Indian-American. That's me in my avatar.

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 5/27/06 at 8:48pm

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/thenamesake/trailer/