“The Namesake” is a film that authentically explores the Bengali culture and the complex experiences of immigrants from India trying to assimilate into mainstream American society. Bengali culture has a deep-rooted, centuries-old heritage that diverse influences across the Indian subcontinent have shaped. The Bengali people are an ethnic and linguistic group originating from the region of Bengal in South Asia, which includes present-day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura. With over 265 million speakers worldwide, the Bengali language has a rich literary tradition and is a core part of Bengali identity and pride. Bengal has been a melting pot of Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist faiths over the centuries, giving rise to a vibrant syncretic culture.
Family values and close kinship ties form the bedrock of Bengali culture. The traditional joint family system has been the norm, where multiple generations lived together under one roof. However, this has seen shifts with urbanization and migration. Food is also deeply intertwined with Bengali culture, with dishes like rice, fish curries, lentils, and sweetmeats being staples. The hilsa fish is the most prized delicacy (Ray & Choudhury, 2018).
The film poignantly captures the challenges of retaining cultural roots and a sense of belonging for the first-generation immigrant parents, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, who leave their home in Calcutta for New York. It also highlights the identity crisis faced by their American-born children, Gogol and Sonia, who feel disconnected from their Bengali heritage yet are not entirely accepted as “American” either. Other significant cultural topics were also revealed, such as the existing communication gaps and generational values conflict between the parents who live abroad and their children born in the host country. The children’s problematic romantic relationships with different races and the strains they create is a subplot, which is another topic of conflict that occurs due to differences in ethnicity.
One of the themes from “The Namesake,” which deals with the difficulties that arise as the newcomers assimilate, is the cultural issue of immigration and acculturation. The central conflict is the main struggle that is represented through Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli in America as they try to preserve the rituals, customs, and family structure of their Bengali background as they adapt to the new culture. It was more difficult for Ashima as she had to struggle to settle in a new place far from her motherland’s warmth. As to their children, they are conceived as the mediators between two worlds, in this case American, neither being a “true” American nor a “real” Bengali one. Gogol and Sonia have issues of identity, and their aspirations to have American culture predominate between them are high. This echoes the gaping holes in many research sources on family issues and intergenerational cultural problems of immigrants.
The film also emphasizes the prominent cultural theme that names imply who people are and are a crucial element in the basis of personal and ethnic identity. “Gogol” means different things to different people, as it is an everyday topic of discussion for the Ganguli family, who have to deal with the altered spelling of their son’s name. This crisis of names symbolizes the more profound strife of coming to terms with the clash between names that sit with traditional roots and American identities that many second-generation immigrants assume. The correlation between Gogol’s developing connection with his name and his disintegrating self-perception is shown throughout the narrative, which, in essence, represents his changing cultural affiliation.
Regarding Gogol’s romantic encounters with different white-American women, including the carefree Maxine, the film underscores the nuances of the mix of interracial, intercultural, and interfaith bonds. It demonstrates profound cultural distinctions in world views, values, and lifestyles and how they differ when one crosses cultural boundaries (Dasgupta, 2018). Gogol’s parent’s understanding of the importance of marriage selection and its link to racial endogamy is one of the factors which perpetuate the existence of cultural traditions around the selection of marital partners in many immigrant communities. His American girlfriends suffer from their lack of understanding of how tight-knit Bengali families are and the traditional gender role expectations for Bengali men (Chae, 2018). The studies have highlighted that romantic couples belonging to different races and cultures encounter distinct pressures, which range from diverse cultural norms, biases of race, and failure to be approved by parents and communities of either or both of the partners. The movie presents the realities of these problems authentically since Gogol tries to manage the relationship between his two wor, who are different culturally.
Traditional gender stereotypes and cultural norms for women and men portraying their way of life across the long-ago generations of The Namesake are also shown profoundly. Shweta’s journey depicts the indoctrination of young Bengali women to be family-minded with a higher purpose of caring for their house over their desires. However, the Indian partners, such as Ashima, stand for a completely different outlook, which is traditional for their native culture, is based on spiritual beliefs, and is incompatible with the American concept, ion which is to represent a careeristic, individual-oriented approach to relationships. Additionally, another hidden theme concerns how there are disparities in how Bengali men have a different set of standards compared to women in the dating and sex sphere. These conflicts develop because of the difference in culture commonly experienced by the immigrants to a new culture where the gender relations are ill-defined, ned and the roles in marriages and families are slowly changing.
The Namesake provides a nuanced portrayal of the advantages and challenges of straddling multiple cultural identities as an immigrant. On the positive side of the film, not only is there a focus on effervescence, richness, and emotional support, which are the outcomes of keeping ethnic traditions and community ties, but there is also a celebration of the variety. Bengali heritage is a source of pride, familiarity, and rootedness in the Ganguli family, even when settled in an unknown country. Traditional culture, which includes food, festivals, arts, values, and social networks, is a safe and holding anchor in the mixing of assimilation (Ray & Ray, 2019). The scenes of close-knit family get-togethers and festive ethnic holidays are examples of an ethnic community that typically manages to continue its feeling of being home.
Nevertheless, the authorial expression skilfully brings forth the anguish and profound turmoil inherent in cultural duality. The identity crises, feelings of inauthenticity, and grief over the gradual loss of ethnic identity experienced by characters like Gogol and Ashima lay bare the emotional toll of cross-cultural living (Ray & Ray, 2019). Overall, the film paints a balanced picture – cultural hybridity is a double-edged sword carrying immense meaning and profound alienation.
Viewing The Namesake’s depiction through a counseling lens, we see the protagonists could have significantly benefited from culturally competent counseling services to navigate their journeys across cultural lines. A critical multicultural counseling tool is for the therapist to develop self-awareness about their cultural conditioning and implicit biases(Ray & Ray, 2019). Only by first gaining self-understanding can the counselor strive to understand and empathize with the cross-cultural client’s unique experiences, worldviews, and intersecting cultural affiliations. With this culturally humble mindset, the counselor can integrate the client’s cultural context into all aspects of the therapeutic process – from rapport building to case conceptualization, goal setting, and deriving suitable intervention strategies (Rothstein, 2018). Creative techniques like narrative therapy can help clients reconstruct more adaptive cultural narratives. Cognitive-behavioral approaches target negative thought patterns stemming from acculturation stress. Family therapy modalities are crucial for addressing the cultural value clashes and communication gaps arising in immigrant family systems. Counselors must take an interdisciplinary, culturally responsive stance when working with the cross-cultural population in The Namesake.
The review of this film on culture and immigration helped me to examine my viewpoints, stereotyping, and emotional reactions, which I have to work on even further to master cultural self-examination and the development of competence. Coming from an insular small-town background, I also started to recognize my biases about how universal some of my cultural norms, like family structure, communication style, or life milestones. It was moving to see how Ashima portrayed the intensity of her sacrifice of an extended support system and dislocation to follow her husband. I could understand isolation, grief, and how people could be true heroes in such an expedition in a way, I had never realized before. The introspective process shed light on how I unknowingly view the world through a cultural lens. It made me more honest, seeking, and modest towards the contrasting cultural norms and traditions. Another aspect of Gogol’s biography that connected with me was the intricate psychological turmoil demonstrated in his life. Through his change from being ashamed of his ethnic past to a genuine desire to find spiritual connection and answer, I was reminded of how easy it is to think of cultural identity as something obvious and, therefore, unimportant. These discoveries make me constantly hungry to explore my cultural duality through education, cultural events, and the process of multicultural identity development. In the end, this self-awareness that is very crucial is the one that leads to the development of the cultural competence.
Chae, M. H. (2018). Awakening cultural self-awareness: A journey toward culturally responsive teaching. NYS TESOL Journal, 5(2), 53-62.
Dasgupta, S. D. (2018). Interstitial, intersectional, Intergenerational: Writing the lives of South Asian Americans. WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, 46(3-4), 240-253.
Ray, K., & Choudhury, A. (2018). Fish curry: Exploring representations of Bengali culinary culture. Food, Culture & Society, 20(4), 631-652.
Ray, M., & Ray, R. (2019). Exploring transnational resilience: A Bengali immigrant family and psychosocial cultural bricolage. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 50(2), 163-184.
Rothstein, L. F. (2018). Becoming culturally responsive educators: Scaffolding efficacy beliefs through readings, role-plays, and reflexive discussions. American Psychological Association.