If you’ve read any of my other pieces, you know how I feel about turning books into movies. With a few exceptions, it’s usually disaster, a crime against literature. The Namesake is one of those exceptions.

Screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala and director Mira Nair were ideal for this project because, as the finished product shows, they both share author Jhumpa Lahiri’s gift of subtlety and a less-is-more approach. In fact, I’ve never seen a movie in which one line, tenderly spoken, can express so much of a character’s inner life. That is also where gifted actors come in. Kal Penn, Tabu, Irfan Khan — geniuses.

Take note everyone — this is how you make a movie out of a book.

Jennifer Leblanc