Our final Big Read event is coming up Friday, May 2, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.
We will be showing the movie “The Namesake,” based upon the book of the same name. The book, by Jhumpa Lahiri, has been our Big Read community read book since October 2013. The film does full justice to Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel. To be able to fit a story spanning three decades into two hours without making it feel rushed or contrived takes some doing, and Mira Nair paces it beautifully. The cinematography, the editing (juxtaposing Calcutta and New York), and even the colors of the opening credits are all spot on.
The movie will be shown in our opera house theater at 7:30 p.m. Admission is by donation! There will be fresh popped popcorn, beer, wine, and soft drinks available for purchase that evening.
Please join us and send off the Big Read with gusto!
What’s the movie about?
While traveling by train to visit his grandfather in Jamshedpur, Calcutta born, Bengali-speaking Ashoke Ganguli, meets with fellow traveler, Ghosh, who impresses upon him to travel, while Ashoke is deep into a book authored by Nicholai Gogol. The train meets with an accident, and after recuperating, Ashoke relocates to America and settles down.
He returns home in 1977 to get married to aspiring singer, Ashima, and returns home to New York. Shortly thereafter they become parents of a boy, who they initially name Gogol, and a few years later both give birth to Sonia. The family then buys their own house in the suburbs and travel to India for the first time after their marriage. The second time they travel to India is when Gogol and Sonia are in their late teens, and after a memorable visit to Kolkata and then to the Taj Mahal, they return home.
Gogol falls in love with Maxine Ratliff and moves in with her family, while Ashoke spends time traveling, and Sonia moves to California, leaving Ashima all her by herself. The Ganguli family will be destined to travel to India again soon – this time under very different circumstances – and after all have endured life-changing events.
The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.