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Mira Nair’s The Namesake, a story on the travails of a NRI family in the US, is about to be released in India. While the focus has undoubtedly been on its two accomplished leads, Tabu and Irrfan Khan, it has also brought to notice an actor, Kal Penn, who plays the role of their son and is mostly unknown here.
Most U S journals while giving rave reviews to the movie — it was released earlier there — have singled out Kal for praise.

The New York Times wrote : “Kal Penn, playing Gogol, displays a depth you would never guess (from his earlier roles).”

Another reviewer in the same paper said, “The film has a crackling star performance by Kal Penn.. who brings an offhanded charisma to the role of Gogol”. Entertainment Weekly simply said,“Penn turns out to be a fantastic actor”.

So who is this Kal Penn ? It turns out, that unlike the firang  slant to his name, he is an NRI son of Gujarati immigrants who settled in New Jersey. His name is Kalpen Suresh Modi, born in Montclair, NJ, of an engineer father and a chemist mom.

Kal is no spring chicken and will be turning 30, as you read this. He had done his later studies at UCLA where he majored in Films and Sociology. Acting ambitions took him to Los Angeles where he was seen in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Horrors !

His agent suggested a screen-name that’s easier on the tongue. So, Kalpen Modi became Kal Penn (like Sean Penn). Not that it helped greatly. He got supporting roles in two NRI-produced pravasi yarns: American Desi and Where’s The Party, Yaar? His own life as an ABCD (Americaborn Confused Desi) was an assist in his portrayals.

As he told Playboy in an interview, he’d entered college at age 18 as a non-smoker, veggie, and with his — ahem — honour intact. The honour bit he proceeded to rectify one sultry afternoon, with the aid of a bemused co-ed in his college dorm, and thereafter to realise his fantasies rather well.

No wonder he played a deadpan, horny comic in his later films where he got noticed: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and Van Wilder, both spawning sequels with Kal reprising his roles.

Recent years have been good for him. His friendship with actor Brandon Routh got him a role in Superman Returns, released last year, in which Routh played the caped hero — so what if Kal played one of the many sidekicks ? He also got the role of an Asian terrorist in the TV-serial 24.

However, it was Mira Nair’s keen eye in picking up Kal Penn for Gogol’s role in The Namesake that’s his big ticket and ought to give a boost to his nine-year acting career.

As he states, he identified with his role of an US-born brat of Indian parents, stuck with a curious name (after the famed Russian author, Nikolai Gogol) and trying his best to mould himself into a typical American teenager.

It takes a trip to India and two heartbreaks for his character to see straight and find what the NYT calls “the new reality of immigration and assimilation in America.”

From Playboy.com to NYT is a big jump for him. Good journals don’t heap praise on actors loosely and with The Namesake, if Kal Penn hasn’t arrived, he could be well on way .

Hopefully for him, the question raised in the title of this piece may not be asked again.