Review: The Namesake, Provoked
Today I went to see the namesake. Since long time when I saw the promo for this movie, the hype in the media, the youtube videos etc made me go for this movie. The trailers were wonderful but the movie was not.
This movie is released in 3 theaters in Chennai that is sathyam, inox and ega. At sathyam the show is at 04:15 pm. inox runs 2 shows. At ega its 12 ‘o’ clock noon-show. If you want to watch it at sathyam or inox then tickets have to be booked earlier. So I went to ega. I was at the counter at 11:45 am and I got the ticket for 12 noon show.
Hollywood movies are made with big budgets for the world audience. These movies can easily be categorized as romance, action, horror etc. bollywood and the regional movies mostly contain all the ingredients comedy, action, sentiments etc in each and every movie. There may be some exceptions here and there but this is common. The namesake neither fits into the English Hollywood movie category nor the Indian filmi category.
The movie moves in a slow pace like that of a small boat in a river. Ashoke Ganguli is caught in an accident while reading his favorite author Gogol’s book in a train. But he survives and then gets married to Ashima. They both leave to the United States. Gogol and Sonia the junior ganguli’s are raised in USA. All four of them visit India, visit the taj mahal. After they go back Gogol graduates. While Gogol is going on a vacation with his girl friend his father dies. Gogol cuts his hair, gets married to a Bengali English speaking girl leaving his white girl friend. His sister is married to a white guy. Gogol comes to know about his wife’s affair with some other guy. Now, he starts recollecting the book which was gifted to him by his father. He says his name is Gogol even though he wanted to change his name earlier. That’s all.
From the way people throng to see this movie it’s understandable that it is running to packed houses. However, I don’t think all those who watched The Namesake would have liked the movie.
Rating 1.5 / 5
Provoked
This is a really well directed movie. Aishwarya does the Kiranjit Ahluwalia’s role with ease. By now everybody would have known the story of provoked. Anyway it’s about a woman who is abused by her husband. The story takes place in London. The movie starts with kiranjit burning her sleeping husband alive in his bed with petrol. She is arrested after the court failing to notice the reason’s for her act. A NGO group takes up the issue and with the help of a jail inmate she is set free.
Comic sequences are inserted in a timely manner to make the movie going. Background music by A R Rahman adds value to the movie. Provoked is worth a watch.
Rating 3 / 5
