Culture-clash stew a little disappointing

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, March 15, 2007

It’s always a drag when a talented filmmaker gets on a promising topic and creates a mess.

Such is the case with Mira Nair’s “The Namesake,” a culture-clash stew that flounders in search of the right tone and pace. It’s based on a novel by Jhumpa Lahiri.

The story covers a couple of generations in an Indian family: the first section covers a pair of newlyweds, joined in an arranged marriage, who move from Calcutta to New York. Ashoke Ganguli is in America for a job, and his new bride Ashima must adapt to this cold, lonely place.

The focus shifts after a few reels to their son, Gogol (Kal Penn), a typical American teenager. Typical except for his name, which comes courtesy of the great Russian writer.

Gogol rebels against his father, though not very hard. He tries on romance with a Long Island princess (Jacinda Barrett) and a friend of his family (intriguing Zuleikha Robinson, from TV’s “Rome”). He trails along on a trip to India, and maybe finds a bit of cultural pride along the way.

It’s hard to tell, because the movie is so scattered. It can’t settle on whether the parents’ assimilation or the son’s cultural appreciation is more important, and neither element grows into an urgent matter.

Meanwhile, the meaning of Gogol’s name is a kind of storytelling red herring. As we learn in the opening sequence, Ashoke was reading a volume of Gogol while riding a train as a young man, and his unlikely survival after a train crash prompted the christening of his son. But why this is withheld from Gogol is never clear.

Perhaps if the film had more about the meaning of literature to Ashoke, or something about the Gogol story (“The Overcoat”) and how it figures in this context.

All of this undercuts some extremely lovely sequences and a handful of compelling performances. Mira Nair is keen on culture collision, whether in India (“Monsoon Wedding”) or America (“Mississippi Masala”), and she creates some images here that are superb.

Probably too much time is spent on the parents in the beginning, yet they are more interesting than the son. Veteran Indian actors Irrfan Khan (as Ashoke) and Tabu (as Ashima) have a lot to do with this; they’re wonderful.

Kal Penn is best known for his comic talents, notably in the comedy gem “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.” He’s capable in this straight role, if not quite a revelation. Much like the movie itself.

Kal Penn, Irrfan Khan, Sahria Nair, and Tabu in the movie “The Namesake.”