(2006) Filmmaker Mira Nair's story is of a Bengali family adjusting to life in America. In 1977 Ashoke Ganguli (Irrfan Khan), returning to his home in Calcutta from New York where he has earned a PhD in fiber optics, marries the beautiful, youthful Ashima (Tabu), who sings and speaks some English, and takes her back with him.

In their New York apartment he points out the advantages of continuous gas heating in the winter, hot and cold tap water from which one may drink without boiling first, and a washing machine. Their first child they give a daknam (nickname), Gogol, until his naming ceremony at four years when he's given his proper name, Nikhil. Ashima desires to return to India, but Ashoke points out the advantages of his son's being raised in America. Without ceremony their second child they name Sonia.

Moving with his family into a house in the suburbs, Gogol initially prefers his nickname in school, though by the time he's a senior in high school he complains to his Baba: "I don't understand how you could name me for someone so strange." Nikolai Gogol was both the weirdest of Russian writers and a genius. For a graduation gift Ashoke gives his son a book of Nikolai Gogol's writings, which at the time Gogol (Kal Penn) doesn't appreciate. Ashoke begins to explain to his son the significance his namesake's book and the name itself, telling his son that there are two reasons: first, the Russain Gogol like Ashoke was an exile from his homeland … but leaves the second unstated, except to say cryptically: "We all come out of Gogol's overcoat. One day, you will understand."

Gogol and Sonia (Sahira Nair) accompany their parents to India for the summer before Gogol is to attend Yale. In Agra at the Taj Mahal, a shrine the Mughul Emperor Shah Jahan gave to his favorite wife Arjumand Banu, Gogol is inspired to change his major from engineering to architecture. Ashoke asks Ashima why she chose him. "You were the best of the lot," she confides to her husband, and she liked his fancy shoes.

Before he departs for college, his parents' Bengali friends tell Gogol to have all the fun he wants but marry a Bengali; also he decides to change his first name from Gogol to his "good" name Nikhil, telling his parents it will be better on a credit card and résumé. At Yale Nick becomes seriously involved with a Caucasian girlfriend, Maxine (Jacinda Barrett). When he introduces her to his parents, he reminds her not to touch or kiss him in their presence as such displays of affection would be offensive.

Ashoke takes his son aside to explain the rest of the meaning of the name Gogol, involving two miracles: first, on a train trip in 1974, while a student and reading The Overcoat, another passenger urged him to leave India (though his grandfather had told him that reading a book was "to travel without moving an inch"); soon after the train crashed, killing many of the passengers, but Ashoke, badly injured, was rescued when someone noticed the book clutched in his hand. The second miracle was when Gogol was born. "That is how I came to America and you got your name," Baba tells his son. "Everyday since has been a gift."

Ashoke leaves Ashima, preferring to remain in New York, to teach for a semester in Cleveland; there he dies alone of a heart attack. Feeling enormous sorrow and regret, Nikhil saves his head; the family travel to India to spread Ashoke's ashes in the Ganges. When they return to the States, Ashima suggests that her son visit Moushumi Mazumadar (Zuleikha Robinson), a brilliant Bengali girl whose family they've known from their earliest days in America and who has suffered a prenuptial disaster. Moushumi says to Nikhil, "Should we make our mothers happy and see each other again?"

A widow at 45, Ashima, whose name means "without borders or limitless," announces to her family and friends that she will spend six months of each year in India to resume her study of music. After rediscovering the book his father had given him as a graduation present, his mother tells him, "There are no accidents, Gogol." Gogol's sister Sonia marries Ben, a Caucasian, whom Ashima accepts as part of adjusting to America. Gogol recalls his father's words to him as a young child at the edge of the sea: "Remember we went to a place where there was no place to go."

Unlike many films spanning two or three decades in the lives of principal characters, the makeup here convincingly shows the characters, especially Ashoke and Ashima, aging from their twenties into their forties.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .