Mira Nair describes Tabu as a talented actress with the ability to pull off portraying a character who ages in her new film The Namesake.

Tabu plays a young Indian immigrant bride who joins her husband in the United States, then a mother dealing with living in a foreign country, and finally a widow in her adopted country.

“Tabu listens acutely. The whole world, life itself is reflected in her eyes,” Nair said in an interview published in a newspaper.

“That's why I cast her as Ashima, who has to be the dewdrop bride at 21 and have the gravitas of a widow at 50,” Nair added.

‘The Namesake’, to be released on Friday, is based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian-born American author Jhumpa Lahiri and is about an Indian family's assimilation into American culture.

IRRFAN'S MOTHER ACCUSES NAIR OF KILLING HER SON!

"Kya mera hi beta mila maarne ke liye", narrated Mira Nair about what Irrfan's mother had told her in the Mumbai premier of The Namesake and instead of a collective gasp, the entire auditorium was left laughing. Reason? Irrfan's mother was referring to the character played by him, Ashok Ganguli, who dies towards the second half of the film.

"Sorry to give it away but I couldn't help telling about this to all of you", said Mira who had come along with Irrfan for the Delhi premier of her film at PVR Priya on Thursday. A well attended event with hundreds making beeline outside the theater to try their luck to have a dekko at the film, the premier also combined with it a call for a social cause about uplifting of street children.

After making a rather emotional speech about how and why he wanted his parents and in-laws to watch the film, Irrfan Khan quipped, "You will get to understand my bakwaas and mumbling more once you watch the film since it holds a lot of relevance to what actually unfolds on screen!"