Herald & Kumar's Kal Penn gets serious as Gogol Ganguli, a 1st generation Indian American, dancing between his parent's Bengali roots and assimilating into a north east American lifestyle.
Some may say it's a bit of a drag, but I actually found it fast paced for narrating the life story of two generations of a family. His name, Gogol, is his family's pet name for him, and as Gogol spends more time with his white friends, at Yale, and as an architect in Soho, he assumes his formal name Nikhil. Even his uber yuppy girlfriends calls him "Nik." But after some dramatic family events, he ends up with a nice Bengali intellectual; they marry, but just because she's indian doesn't mean she's going to be a perfect house wife, and they split.
In my mind, his mother is the other significant character. She moves to Queens after meeting her husband for a few days; she yearns for her warm homeland, finding the people here cold. Luckily, her husband is very supportive as she struggles to adapt to her new life. As the family grows, she continues to be the voice of "well back in India..."; but with good reason, and instead of rolling eyes, I ended up sympathizing with her.
In short: 4/5 Stars.
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