a friendship with Moushumi (Zuleikha Robinson), the daughter of family friends. They begin dating and soon after get married. However, the marriage is short-lived as Moushumi, bored with being a wife, starts having an affair with an old boyfriend from Paris. Gogol divorces her, while Ashima blames herself for pressuring Gogol to marry a fellow Bengali. Gogol returns home to help Ashima pack the house when he finds the book Ashoke gave him as a graduation present. Searching for comfort, and accepting his new life alone, Gogol finally reads the stories written by his namesake on the train home. As well as depicting Gogol/Nikhil's experiences, the film describes the courtship and marriage of Ashima and Ashoke, and the effect on the family from Ashoke's early death from a massive heart attack. Through experiencing his father's funeral rites on the banks of the Ganges, Gogol begins to appreciate Indian culture. Ashima's decision to move on with her life, selling the suburban family home and returning to Calcutta for part of each year, unifies and ends the story. Cast Kal Penn as Nikhil "Gogol" Ganguli Soham Chatterjee as child Gogol aged 4 years Tabu as Ashima Ganguli Irrfan Khan as Ashoke Ganguli Sahira Nair as Sonia Ganguli Jacinda Barrett as Maxine Ratcliffe Sebastian Roché as Chris Wright Linus Roache as Mr Joshua Lawson (Gogol's teacher) Glenne Headly as Lydia Zuleikha Robinson as Moushumi Majumdar Ruma Guha Thakurta as Ashoke's mother Sabyasachi Chakrabarty as Ashima's father Supriya Devi as Ashima's grandmother Jagannath Guha as Ghosh Sukanya Chakraborty as Rini Tanushree Shankar as Ashima's mother Tamal Roy Choudhury as Ashoke's father Jhumpa Lahiri as Jhumpa Mashi The film has cameo appearances by actor Samrat Chakrabarti, academic Partha Chatterjee and visual artist Naeem Mohaiemen. Development Initially Rani Mukerji was considered for the principal lead, but due to scheduling conflicts, the role went to Tabu. Kal Penn was recommended for the movie by John Cho and strongly requested by Nair's son, who was a fan of Penn in Harold and Kumar. Soundtrack The soundtrack has varied music: Indian, Anglo-Indian (by Nitin Sawhney, influenced by Ravi Shankar's music for Pather Panchali), and a French piece. One British Indian electronica piece is State of Bengal's "IC408." The ringtone from Moushumi's mobile phone is the song "Riviera Rendezvous" by Ursula 1000 from the album Kinda' Kinky; this is the same song that is played when Gogol and Moushumi first