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The Namesake (2006)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 126
Fresh: 108 | Rotten: 18

An ambitious exploration of the immigrant experience with a talented cast that serves the material well.

Average Rating: 7.6/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 29 | Rotten: 5

An ambitious exploration of the immigrant experience with a talented cast that serves the material well.

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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 62,435

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Movie Info

A couple coming to terms with living in a new culture discover their troubles are compounded by their son in this drama from filmmaker Mira Nair. Ashoke (Irfan Khan) and Ashima (Tabu) are a young couple who are brought together in an arranged marriage and soon leave Calcutta to seek their fortune in America. As the couple becomes accustomed to one another, they learn to deal with the coolness and superficiality of life in New York, even as they revel in the opportunities the city offers them.

PG-13, 2 hr. 2 min.

Drama

Directed By: Mira Nair

Written By: Sooni Taraporevala

In Theaters: Sep 2, 2006 Wide

On DVD: Nov 27, 2007

Box Office:$13.5M

Fox Searchlight Pictures

The Namesake Trailer & Photos

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Cast

Kal Penn
Gogol Ganguli
Tabu
Ashima
Irfan Khan
Ashoke
Jacinda Barrett
Maxine
Zuleikha Robinson
Moushumi Mazumdar
Gretchen Egolf
Astrid
Pallavi Shah
Kajol Mashi

Critic Reviews for The Namesake

All Critics (131) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (110) | Rotten (19) | DVD (10)

What holds it together are the subtle loving performances by Tabu and Khan, both Bollywoood stars. They never overplay, never spell out what can be said in a glance or a shrug, communicate great passion very quietly.

December 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

It is a saga told in small pieces, a patchwork of short scenes that tumble after each other almost apologetically, as if they would love to linger a little longer, but there is too much to tell and only so much time in which to do it.

April 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Film.com

| Comment

Jonathan F. Richards

Film.com

Top Critic

Penn is just wrong for it.

April 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel

| Comments (3)

Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

Top Critic

Intelligent and insightful, The Namesake celebrates family in a unique way.

March 29, 2007 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

| Comment

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Top Critic

This is a wonderful movie.

March 24, 2007 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic

| Comment

Randy Cordova

Arizona Republic

Top Critic

There's more love and heart in The Namesake than in many Hollywood dramas. I just wish the filmmakers had spread it around. Cross-cultural understanding should be a two-way street.

March 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle

| Comments (5)

Bruce Westbrook

Houston Chronicle

Top Critic

Sprawling, uneven, heartfelt

August 27, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion

| Comment

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Buoyed by terrific performances from Irrfan Kahn and the tremendous Tabu, the film is a bit homogenized but does a good job of exploring the dynamics of blending foreign cultures with American ways of life.

September 30, 2008 Full Review Source: Oscar Guy

| Comment

Wesley Lovell

Oscar Guy

lacks focus and never quite finds its footing

August 17, 2008 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures

| Comment

Kevin Carr

7M Pictures

This movie is not bad, I just couldn't connect with it. The Namesake is poignant (I cried once) and spans many years with grace and great acting, but it may be beyond my ken to truly appreciate as it deserves.

February 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinerina

| Comment

Karina Montgomery

Cinerina

Mira Nair's film is called The Namesake which immediately focuses our attention toward the value of names and naming (and that theme is explored occasionally within the film), but to slip even further down the rabbit hole, the more intriguing area of disc

December 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Bangitout.com

| Comment

Jordan Hiller

Bangitout.com

If you're somebody who's spent your life really angry about the name your parents stuck you with, then you'll relate wholeheartedly to Harold and Kumer Go To White Castle's Kal Penn in The Namesake, cringing whenever he's called Gogol Ganguli.

November 25, 2007 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze

| Comment

Prairie Miller

NewsBlaze

Kal Penn, who got kooky for 'Harold and Kumer Go To White Castle,' shows his impressive serious side here as Gogol Ganguli, a guy who suspects that his given name may be a fatal turnoff with females.

November 25, 2007 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze

| Comment

Prairie Miller

NewsBlaze

A magnificent meditation on what it might mean for many immigrants to be American in the 21st Century.

November 24, 2007 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze

| Comment

Kam Williams

NewsBlaze

A fascinating and gripping drama on the search for identity...

November 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed

| Comment

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

The all too familiar tale of the upwardly mobile immigrants conflicted between tradition and modernity is played out for all it is worth.

November 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

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Audience Reviews for The Namesake

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This film, about a young Bengali American wrestling with a cultural identity crisis, is a nice take on the culture clash/cultural identity film, and also marks a nice change of pace for Kal Penn. True, he had a serious role on House, but there was also a lot of humor.This is a more mature work for him, even though

June 17, 2011

Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

A beautiful film, great screenplay and direction that brings a terrific cast. Fresh.

June 13, 2011

Lucas Martins

Super Reviewer

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