I’ve seen the trailer for The Namesake several times now, and it’s grown on me little by little.  At first I thought it would just be a nice intercultural love story in which the younger generation upsets their parents by not maintaining the cultural identity.  But more sinks in each time I see the trailer.

It is that, to be sure, but it is also about what it means to live in two cultures.  It is about the importance of where we have come from, even if we have never really been there.  It is about the importance of family. It appears to also be a story of discovery as the central character, Gogol, learns the importance of his name which will help him to understand who he is.  I expect part of that discovery will be about the importance of faith.

Mira Nair has made other films that deal with the culture clash of Indian immigrants to America—Missisippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding both deal with these issues.  They are always insightful, as one might expect from someone who has lived in the two cultures.

We live in a time of great cultural mixing.  At one time we believed in the concept of a melting pot, in which people from all cultures would blend into a harmonious new people.  In recent generations, the image has shifted to that of a mosaic or salad, where the differences are maintained, but rather than blending, they go together to make something beyond all the individual elements. 

For immigrants, whether from Asia or Latin America or anyplace else, it is hard to maintain one’s past and culture and at the same time embrace the new culture.  They may ask, “Why can’t we just be the way we have always been?”  For long time residents, it is sometimes just as hard to embrace the foreign culture that we may think of as an invasion or imposition.  And we may ask, “Why can’t they learn to be like us?”

The Namesake will focus on a lifelong America (Gogol was born and raised here) who needs to embrace that which his family left behind.