I saw this at the September 13, 2006 screening at the Toronto Film Festival because the September 11 screening was sold out by the time we bought our tickets, unfortunately. Director Mira Nair (and another woman who was her producer, I believe) briefly introduced the movie.
I recently read the novel and the movie is very well done and a pretty faithful adaptation. Everyone does a fabulous job, but I particularly liked Irfan Khan as Ashoke and Kal Penn as Gogol. I have read that Mira Nair had seriously considered casting Abishek Bachchan as Gogol, which would have been a huge mistake. It is very important that Gogol be an American, and no Indian actor would have been able to pull this off. The movie takes place in New York, not Boston, and Ashima sings, but these do not particularly change the story. Moushumi is presented as quite the sexy bombshell, which she wasn't particularly in the book.
My major criticism is that I feel the movie was very unfair to Jacinda Barrett's character (Gogol's blond girlfriend Maxine). She was shown to be clueless, calling Gogol's parents by their first names, kissing Ashoke and Ashima and holding Gogol's hand when she meets his parents even though he had explicitly told her not to, and arriving at Ashoke's funeral wearing a sleeveless black top. This seemed to have been put in to make us all groan and laugh at the silly white girl. Gogol also treats her unfairly when she wants to share in his grief and come to India with them to scatter his father's ashes, when she fairly points out that Gogol had been treated as part of her family. In the book she had grown up in a very liberal household and called her own parents by their first names, very different from Gogol, but she knew how to behave around others.
But otherwise, a very moving film. I would highly recommend seeing it.
I recently read the novel and the movie is very well done and a pretty faithful adaptation. Everyone does a fabulous job, but I particularly liked Irfan Khan as Ashoke and Kal Penn as Gogol. I have read that Mira Nair had seriously considered casting Abishek Bachchan as Gogol, which would have been a huge mistake. It is very important that Gogol be an American, and no Indian actor would have been able to pull this off. The movie takes place in New York, not Boston, and Ashima sings, but these do not particularly change the story. Moushumi is presented as quite the sexy bombshell, which she wasn't particularly in the book.
My major criticism is that I feel the movie was very unfair to Jacinda Barrett's character (Gogol's blond girlfriend Maxine). She was shown to be clueless, calling Gogol's parents by their first names, kissing Ashoke and Ashima and holding Gogol's hand when she meets his parents even though he had explicitly told her not to, and arriving at Ashoke's funeral wearing a sleeveless black top. This seemed to have been put in to make us all groan and laugh at the silly white girl. Gogol also treats her unfairly when she wants to share in his grief and come to India with them to scatter his father's ashes, when she fairly points out that Gogol had been treated as part of her family. In the book she had grown up in a very liberal household and called her own parents by their first names, very different from Gogol, but she knew how to behave around others.
But otherwise, a very moving film. I would highly recommend seeing it.