I just saw The Namesake. What a magnificent little movie. I can’t get it out of my head. This is surely one of Mira Nair’s best.

I especially wanted to see this film after having written about Muslim cousin marriage in Britain in “Assimilation Studies” and “Assimilation Studies Part II.” Yes, there were some remote echoes of the problems of British Pakistani assimilation in this story of two generations of South Asian Hindus in the United States. Yet the differences stood out. The challenge for this American Hindu family is coming to grips with a seemingly irresistible process of Americanization. In some fundamental sense, assimilation in this film is simply taken for granted. A lot of this has to do with how much better America is at taking in immigrants than Europe. Then there’s the fact that these immigrants, like many from Asia to the U.S., were very highly educated. But that’s by no means the whole of it, since rural Hindu and Sikh immigrants from India generally assimilate much more successfully than rural Pakistani Muslims in Britain. That’s why special factors–like female seclusion and cousin marriage–have got to be at work for British Muslim assimilation to be hindered so dramatically.

But, hey, no need to worry about all that intellectual heavy lifting. The Namesake is a plain wonderful movie. You’ll find it in the art houses, and while most of it’s in English, maybe 15 percent has sub-titles. If that’s not your cup of tea, forget it. But as far as I’m concerned, The Namesake is well worth your time.