Carried mainly by the superlative acting of Irrfan Khan and Tabu, it was tender and emotional at moments. Overall however, the movie falls flat. Nair caters to a Western audience and spends some time in the exposition of Indian customs and clarifies their purpose for the average Western viewer. This is necessary, to some extent, but perhaps a little subtlety might have made it more palatable. Also, some of the shots of Calcutta are straight from the Textbook of the Exotic – a kid flying a kite, a statue of Durga being hoisted down from a building.
The Great Ganesha is not very impressed with Mira Nair’s The Namesake.
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