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Reviews
The Namesake (2006)
Life Interruptus
This is the story of Ashima, a talented singer, whose pursuit of music is rudely interrupted by Life. It takes a marriage, moving to a foreign land, bringing up and settling down her two children and death of her husband, to free her to follow her true bliss - that was her music.
In between we are taken through the roller coaster ride of love, laughter and tears before Ashima becomes her Namesake "truly boundary less". Of course, as a side story her son Nikhil finds the true nature of his Namesake too, that was Gogol.
A fabulous film if you have the sitzfleisch to spend 122 minutes of your lifetime watching the 25 years of a beautiful Life unfolding. Tabu as Ashima reminds every one of their great maternal figure in their own lives. Her acting is natural and effortless.
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005)
Sincere effort to show Amercan incomprehension of other cultures
Overall I liked the movie - I understand why Brooks would have preferred to work in India than in a Muslim country. The focus here is to understand alien culture - it does not really matter which one it is as long as it is not American. I loved the way he captures the people and the imagery. Of course Pakistani side of his film was more cartoonish and did not do justice to that part of the country. Pakistanis will have legitimate beef with their portrayal. The snippets from the outsourcing office in Delhi next to his rundown office is simply hilarious (onstar hot-line...). His state department guides at Delhi and his secretary / assistant are all great. If you are going to this movie to get some great insight into Moslem mind you will be sorely disappointed. If you go there to see how an American is like a fish out of the water in any culture other than his own, you will have a jolly good time.