The Namesake

The Namesake adapted Jhumpa Lahiri's novel with such fidelity and feeling that it is hard to imagine the book without the film, or the film without the book. Mira Nair brings her documentary instincts to the story of Ashoke (Irrfan Khan) and Ashima (Tabu), a Bengali couple who build a life in suburban New York, and their son Gogol (Kal Penn), who grows up embarrassed by his name, his parents' accents, and everything that marks him as Other.

The film spans three decades, from Ashoke's near-fatal train accident in India to Gogol's eventual reckoning with his heritage after his father's death. Tabu's performance as Ashima — a woman who spends decades feeling like a visitor in her own life — is extraordinary. Her grief after Ashoke dies, expressed in a single, silent scene of her packing away his shoes, is acting of the highest order.

Irrfan Khan, before he became an international star, brings a quiet dignity to Ashoke that anchors the entire film. His speech to Gogol about the origin of his name — a Russian author whose book saved his life in a train wreck — is the emotional heart of the story: "We all came out of Gogol's overcoat. One day you will understand." By the end, Gogol does.