Movie vs. Book "The namesake"

Well, good books ought to be read always. But some movies' attempts at getting at the gestalt gets so clobbered, you almost feel obliged to the author to give it a read, although the book may not have been in my "must read" rack of things. Mira Nair simply refuses to go the mile - the author of the book, Jhumpa and the filmmaker,Mira, both women, felt it easy to have a woman walk out of her trappings but not the man! I thought in Adaptations, you take and use the license you get. Sure, Mira wants to give her intended audience, the "feel good" and sort of skimishes past the real questions.