Click to play videoToronto: After the gala opening of Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK) at the Toronto International Film Festival, director Mira Nair’s critically acclaimed film Namesake premiered at the festival to packed houses.
The film is based on author Jhumpa Lahiri’s book by the same name.
CNN-IBN correspondent Indira Kannan caught up with the filmmaker to know her take on the film and the role fabulously essayed by Tabu in the film.
Indira Kannan: The theatrical release of the movie has been delayed till next year. Were you disappointed with that announcement?
Mira Nair: The filmmaker in me is of course impatient to have the world see the film. But I am keener that the film is presented in a very careful marketing campaign. It will make it appear the very universal story that it is. So, I am in very good hands with Fox Searchlight and look forward to the film.
Indira Kannan: How strongly and at what points did you feel that you had to be faithful to the book that inspires this film? Did you feel that you had to bring out your own interpretation in it?
Mira Nair: The idea was to be faithful to the spirit of the book. But as a director and a filmmaker I have to make the emotional and visual landscape my own.
The most beautiful aspect about Namesake was that it gave me the ability to unite the story of the two cities – Kolkata and New York where I grew up. I filmed the two cities as if they were one.
Indira Kannan: What was Jhumpa Lahiri’s reaction after seeing the film? Has she seen it as yet?
Mira Nair: Jhumpa has seen it many times. The first time she saw it in a rough video form, she came to me and sobbed. She literally cried for five minutes after seeing the film. I cried as well.
Indira Kannan: You said that at the red carpet screening of Namesake, the character of Ashima Ganguly was really the anchor of the film. How do you think Tabu essayed that role?
Mira Nair: I think some angel must have cast a spell on me when I found Tabu for playing the character of Ashima in the film. She has the gravity in her eyes of playing someone who is an innocent bride at 20 to someone who has seen life at 49.
Amitabh Bachchan and Karan Johar were among the audience at the screening of the film.
These are the people whom I really love and revere. They were simply knocked out with the beauty and gravity of Tabu’s performance in the film. I really feel blessed to have her.
Indira Kannan: Thank you for talking to us.
Mira Nair: Thank you.
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