The Ganguli family (Kal Penn, Irrfan and Tabu) and (above) Mira Nair with Tabu at Howrah station. Pictures by Amit Datta

A bustling Beadon Street, with rickshaws, bicycles and pedestrians making their way past the trams trundling along. Sitting by a window on the top floor of Deb Bari ? more famous as Chhatu Babu-Latu Babu?s residence ? US-returned Gogol Ganguli quietly makes a sketch of the city and its crowd. The hustle-bustle on the road doesn?t quite reach him or Mira Nair, who is trying to capture the mood and the moment for her celluloid saga, The Namesake, set in the 1970s.

Gogol (played by American actor of Indian origin Kal Penn) may have had Irrfan and Tabu as his screen parents (Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli), but the rest of his relations comprised a band of Tollywood actors ? from the veteran Supriya Chowdhury to the upcoming theatre actor Dhruv Mukherjee.

Mira has reached Agra for the next shoot schedule, but her actors back home are raving about the dash of professionalism that breezed through town between May-end and June 5. The Calcutta cast shares some special moments from The Namesake sets.

Supriya Chowdhury, Irrfan?s grandmother

?My role was that of a typical lady of a zamindar family who is very protective about her grandson... Everything about the cast and crew was so professional. There was extreme precision in whatever she did. Mira wasn?t tensed at all which helped us concentrate on the acting. She?s a big fan of Ritwik Ghatak and she just couldn?t stop talking about his films and my work in them, specially Meghe Dhaka Tara and the scene where I look up. She admired my eyes a lot. And when I said my eyes were not the same anymore, she replied ?whatever you have is enough for me?.?

Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Tabu?s father

?Most of my scenes were with Tabu, during the paka dekha and the wedding. It so happened that I was in dhoti-kurta when Mira wanted to shoot the sampradan scene. I pointed out that for the sampradan I needed to wear a jor, which was promptly procured. And since I was a Bhaduri, I also needed a poite... Mitra didn?t have any consultant as such, so someone could have been there to advise her.?

Irrfan and Tabu on the Memorial grounds. Picture by Aranya Sen

Tanusree Shankar, Tabu?s mother

?I sat with Mira for an hour with the script when she explained the character to me. That was my only interaction with her before going on the floors. I played a docile middle-class housewife trying to get her daughter married. She?s also a bit excited about the fact that the would-be-groom is from the US? But it was a very different experience. We had struck an instant rapport and so the comfort level was very high. Mira was open to advice and wanted us to share our thoughts with her.?

Tamal Roy Chowdhury, Irrfan?s father

?Being the father of an only son who lives in the US, there was a shade of pride in my character? The composition of actors in this film was very interesting. You had Supriyadi, Ruma Guha Thakurta and Sabyasachi alongside Tabu and Irrfan.?

Dhruv Mukherjee, Tabu?s younger brother

?It was extremely hot and humid when we shot in the Beadon Street house. That?s where Ashima?s marriage takes place and I had to carry Tabu around for the saat paak on a pidi. There was Jhumpa Lahiri?s cousin with me too. But Mira never got tensed. She would also not tell us what to do. There was enough scope for one to improvise.?

The Beadon Street address...

?We conducted a recce of old houses in north Calcutta before selecting Chhatu Babu-Latu Babu?s residence and Mira just fell for it,? says art director Tanmoy Chakraborty, who got the interiors done up with furniture from the Park Street auction houses to get the 70s feel.

Scenes were also canned at Howrah station, the riverfront, the Victoria Memorial grounds, a special train to Santiniketan and the Dum Dum airport.