The Namesake and why Boston got robbed

So we trudged through the snow last night to go watch Mira Nair's The Namesake (and no, it's not pronounced the na-mé-sa-ké nor does it have anything to do with Japan). I liked it. I wouldn't say I loved it because I loved the book, and the book would just get jealous... but, overall, I'm happy that such a beautiful story has been translated to the silver screen and brought to a mass audience.

Things I loved:

1. The portrayal of the parents by Irrfan Khan and Tabu. I don't know what it was, but they both completely inhabited their characters. They made the movie feel close to home just as much as the book did. I almost cried at one point of the book (okay fine, I did cry -happy??). Predictably, the equivalent scene on film had the same effect. I sniveled like a child. This is huge, people. The last time I cried at the movies was during Armageddon. When Bruce Willis stays back on the asteroid to trigger the detonator to the explosives that save the entire human race.
   
   Yeah right, like you didn't choke up during that scene either... poser.
   
   
2. Summers in India... this was captured to perfection. Yes. They. Really. Were. That. Boring. My brother and I would count the days to our flight back. My brother once made me cry when I was 8 because, the day before our flight, he told me my family was flying back home, but agreed at the last minute to leave me behind with my grandparents. All I could think of at the time was I wasn't going to have McDonald's for a whole year. I cried my eyes out. Don't get me wrong. I love India, and I LOVE my family. But this was before The World Is Flat. No internet, no cable, no cell phones, no hot water between the hours of noon and six pm, no "showers", no "toilet paper", and no Coke. AND it was too damn hot to go outside and play.
   
   
3. Kal Penn. Kumar. Call me biased, but as an Indian male, I love it when an indo makes the big time (outside of India of course). Whether it's a billionaire steel tycoon who lays the smack down on chauvinistic regulators, or a hard-working restaurateur who has his portrait immortalized in the middle of Boston's hippest restaurant slash lounge, I have to say I love it when a person gets his due. Kal Penn is every ABCD's hero, and this movie is yet another example of his rising star. Honestly, perfomance-wise, I would say he was upstaged by his fellow veterans on the cast. But not to worry, he'll more than make up for it once Harold & Kumar 2 hits the screens. 08, you bastard, you couldn't come any sooner.

Things I hated:

1. Okay everyone. Here we are: rant time. The Namesake is supposed to take place for the most part in Massachusetts. That's right, Massachusetts, I had to say it. It had to be said. Why is it that filmmakers always feel the need to transplant stories to New York City to give them mass appeal? Sure New York is sexy, but you know what? It really sucks too. Bad things happen to good people, just like anywhere else. Plus, this only felt like, what, the 500th naive-immigrant-coming-of-age-story set in New York City ever been made???
   
   Once upon a time in America... been there, done that. The Godfather II... been there done that. In America... been there, done that. King Kong... been there, done that.
   
   What's wrong with keeping the story in Cambridge? Not authentic enough? Central Square, Cambridge, gets just as much snow and sketchy people roaming around your shopping cart as Scarsdale, New York, or wherever the hell they filmed those first scenes of the movie. Our apartments are a lot shittier too. As for the actual story, the father got his big teaching break at MIT. Don't tell me that's not good enough for a movie. Boston was robbed! Period.
   
   
2. The film premiered in New York, and LA but not in Boston. WTF. Anyway, you know where I'm going with this... Let's go Red Sox!