Just call everyone Auntie and you'll be fine

The other day, I caught the Fox Searchlight film 'The Namesake'. I had mixed feelings going into it.

On the one hand, the main actor is Kal Penn, who hasn't yet not been in a crap film (did I mention I saw 'Van Wilder 2' recently? I didn't?). And his blog for the film was really quite dull, albeit with a poorly conceived KKK joke.

But, it's based on a fantastic book, and the plotline is very similar to that of my parent's life - get married, move to the West, try to balance being Western with being traditional, etc. It's the only novel that I can think of that all four members of my family read in the same few weeks.

Penn, as it turns out, isn't bad in the film. He's shown up by the veterans that play his parents, though. Mira Nair is one of my favourite filmmakers, and the colours, framing, cinematography and organisation of the film is great, as you'd expect. I can't really talk about it too impartially, because the whole time I was saying "Yes! We did that too!" and annoying everyone else in the cinema. Maybe a little too much happens in the last twenty minutes, but it's always engaging. I recommend it highly, but then I'm annoying and Indian. It'll make you want to a) call your mum immediately, and b) slap Jacinda Barrett.

Check out one song from the score, and one that's nothing to do with the film, but the band shares a name with the main character. Rock.

[download Nitin Sawhney - The Namesake (Opening Titles)]
[download Gogol Bordello - Immigrant Punk]