Goofs for
The Namesake (2006) More at IMDb Pro »

• Factual errors: When the Ganguli family visits Calcutta in 1977 one of the advertisements on the streets is for the Calcutta based newspaper "Telegraph". The Telegraph was established in 1982.
  
  
• Factual errors: The baby used to portray the newborn Gogol is not a newborn. He is clearly at least 2-3 months old, if not older.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During a scene set just after the family has returned from spending the summer in India, the very distinctive bright yellow blooms of forsythias can be seen in their yard. Forsythias do not bloom in the autumn.
  
  

• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The characters say "samosas", the correct Bengali term for that snack is "shingara", no Bengali ever says "samosa".
  
  
• Factual errors: Ashima says she is 45 years old at the end of the movie, and that she has been living in America for 25 years, hence indicating she was married at 20, and in a conversation with Gogol, she says, "when I was your age I was celebrating my tenth year anniversary". That would make Gogol 30 years old, but it isn't possible as she has been living in America for 25 years, and Gogol was born in America, as he says himself.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Several anachronisms show up in the 1977 flashback sequences showing Calcutta (Kolkata); the railway station shows a sign for Indusind Bank which was not established until the late 1990s; there is a building of The Telegraph which was not launched till 1982; and there are shots of several bridges and buildings which are only recent additions to the city.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Early in the film when Gogol's mother and father are sitting together and one of them is holding a letter that they plan to mail to India, there are 2 U.S. stamps on the envelope. These stamps are current (2007) stamps, yet the letters are being mailed in the late 1970's or early 1980's.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In one of the scenes, on the Airport flight display board, Delhi is misspelled as 'Dehli'
  
  
• Errors in geography: When the family is in the airport (leaving the US), they're in the International Arrivals (not Departures) area of JFK Airport.
  
  
• Anachronisms: While in the International Arrivals area of JFK Airport, Gogol focuses on the holographic photos/art lining the hallway; this is a modern decoration of that area (and that technology wasn't prevalent ~20 years ago).
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the parents go to New York in 1977, the license plates on the cars are the current blue and white plates (with the state of New York in the middle). The color of the plates in New York in 1977 were orange with dark blue letters and numbers.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The hardcover Pantheon edition/translation of Gogol's stories that Ashoke inscribes to his son and gives him as a graduation present in 1995 was not published until 1998.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the first scenes in New York when Ashima is walking to the Laundromat, the cars parked along the street are all from the 1990s to 2000s, when the scene is actually set in 1977.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Gangulis' dark green Volvo 240 sedan has a New York license plate up front and a California one on the back, when the movie is set in New York and a registered vehicle in the state of New York must have a license plate from the state in which it is registered.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Right before the scene where the Gangulis are by the seashore and Ashoke and Gogol go towards the rocks, a 1987-1990 Chevrolet Caprice Station Wagon (really battered too) can be seen parked in the background, when the scene is set in 1977 (ten years before that model was even introduced to the U.S. market).
  
  

Related Links