While Mira Nair tours The Namesake at film fests including Toronto and Rome, Variety liked what it saw at Telluride:A deeply-felt film. Penn shows serious dramatic chops

… a loving, deeply felt screen translation that should appease fans of the book while making many new converts… Bolstered by Nair’s lush visual style and superb performances from ace Bollywood thesps Irfan Khan, Tabu and “Harold & Kumar” star Kal Penn (in his first dramatic lead), Fox Searchlight can expect above-average arthouse business for this audience-pleasing March release…

This Gogol is as American as they come, as evidenced by his bratty behavior during a family vacation to India, where he consistently disparages the country for its evident backwardness; and later, by his romance with a WASP-y Manhattan princess (Jacinda Barrett), who invites Gogol (now known as “Nick”) for weekends at Oyster Bay and says things like “Everyone loves truffles.” Culture-clash moments like those border on cliche, especially since Barrett’s character isn’t developed much beyond her surface of moneyed privilege…

Ashima and Ashoke remain significant presences in the second half, even after the primary focus shifts to Nick/Gogol. Penn — who has long seemed one of the brightest and most likable young comic talents around — shows serious dramatic chops as he takes us on Nick/Gogol’s expansive odyssey from the proverbial American-Born Confused Desi to a confident young man…

… excellent tech contributions on all fronts, particularly… composer/DJ Nitin Sawhney’s original score. [Link]

This is going to be the first mainstream flick about the Indian-American experience.

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