The Other End Of The Line Review

A lot has been said and done about the iconic “East meets West” concept, with the major endeavors coming from the Eastern filmmakers who apparently seem riveted and infinitely charmed by the idea of a scene between a pretty Asian girl and an august Western man. I don’t know how many of you keep interest or even subscribe to the concept of interracial romance, but somehow this light-weight, trans-culture romantic comedy appealed like no other of its kind. Director James Dodson, who has only a handful of movies like Behind Enemy Lines II, Chronicle and this flick in his credit, directed this under the production of MGM, Adlabs and Hyde Park Entertainment in 2008. there is something undeniable fresh about this Stateside that takes it ahead of its type.

The story starts in America and cuts straight to Mumbai, India and back and forth, portraying the inner workings of an outsourcing call center of a globally recognized bank. The males and females here working for the company are trained to have a native American regional accent, furnished with pop-culture knowledge and given relevant names so as to dupe the people in the other end of the line into believing that the callers are locals. Our lady, Priya Sethi (Shriya Sharan) happens to make a series of overseas calls to the charming and admirable Granger Woodriff (Jesse Metcalfe) in regards to some fraudulent charges made on his banking card and love happens. Simple enough, the chemistry takes the protagonists across boundaries, chasing each other, chasing life, and dreams. The climax of the movie is quite predictable with the old-fashioned reconciliation. But what uplifts the movie from its mediocricity and gets it to the plane of the starrier-cast, high-budgeted flicks is its exclusive presentation of cross-culture romance; feather-light, yet beguilingly enjoyable; an interesting exchange between two film industries. 

Priya Seth is works as a call center executive in Citi Bank headquarters, Mumbai.

The job, for her, is both a mean of earning a living for herself and her family, and that of indulgence with the to-her-enticing American culture. She adopts the identity of Jennifer David, and pretends to be a San Francisco native speaking in a Streisand unaccented American English to deal with hundreds of Americano every day.

She earns big and better than the humble earnings of her insurance seller dad, who apparently finds her profession that makes her forsake her own culture and adopt others’ to be ridiculous. Priya works in the graveyard shift (night-time) because of the time-zonal difference with the calling country. She is engaged to be married to Vikram, the rich and boring, who is overly satisfied with the state of affairs and looks forward to nothing but a conjugal family life. Contrarily, Priya has dissimilar values and dreams. She is strong-willed, the “dreamer, wise and kind” as her father identifies later, modern-minded and wishes to explore the world, meet new people and find happiness in journeying instead of seeking contentment in a settled domestic life.  

She happens to call upon a certain Granger Woodriff, a CitiOne customer to help him out of identity theft and the erroneous charges billed on him. Priya, who is already infatuated with the American culture, fall for his irresistible charm and remarkable chemistry that the two develop over the days. Their instant connection, the little suggestively romantic moments, the unspoken thoughts and above all the magic in it compelled Priya to make a decision, that changed her life forever. She sets up a date with Woodriff, upon his proposal and travels to the city of San Francisco to meet him, and mostly, to live her life and dreams. She plunges into the unknown, snubbing all challenges and difficulties to emerge as more mature woman.

Shriya Saran has been admirable in her role of an innocent, vivacious 22-yeard-old caught between responsibilities and her footloose nature. She plays a strong role in making the story believable, though some parts of it very quite unpractical. Her looks and features went perfectly with the young Asian she played, who is yet to see the world and has a strong thirst in her.

The handsome Jesse Metcalfe of Desperate Housewives as Granger Woodriff is yet another good cast. He plays the usual, working American struggling between the urge to let go and yet holding on tight to the reigns in fear that he will crush and burn. He works in an advertisement company, preoccupied with a certain Hawkson Hotels project, that has got both his job and career in the line. During the course of the movie, he falls for Priya unknowingly, and realizes it much later, only to relinquish every hesitation and follow her back to her homeland where he speaks his heart out and makes up for his previous obnoxiousness. When Priya’s identity was revealed in the penultimate phase, he was bewildered, as he was completely oblivious of what was coming. Yet he departed with commendable grace after getting punched unreasonably and accused outrageously in front of a whole lot of foreign and native guests.

Jesse Metcalfe is completely natural and comfortable in his character, complementing his opposite in all ways possible. He did justice to the charming lover that he played, and made the character come alive and move the audience, despite the challenges of its ordinariness. It is Melcalfe’s cross-culture descend that enabled him to strike a perfect balance between a libertine American and a respectful lover in dealing with a whole bunch of Indians with alien rooting. Cool, attractive and gentle, I don’t think anyone could have made a better Granger Woodriff than him.

The chemistry between Priya and Granger enlivened what was intended to bring about to the audience. It is their on-screen chemistry that I feel is one of the most compulsive drivers that made the movie so similar, yet plausibly realistic and touching. There is an ample of romantic moments between the two that did justice to the romantic magic meant to be brewed up, against the total absence of intimate scenes. The awkwardness of their original differences, thoughts and backgrounds was dissolved by the way they presented their relationship to the audiences. It is their on-screen gel-up that makes the movie a likable watch for the global audience. Trust me, the young, bright-eyed lovers walking the town of San Francisco hand-in-hand, clicking cozy snaps, run-boarding cable cars, talking from either sides of the door and rushing into the cold ocean have much more to offer than people will ordinarily expect them to. 

The culture clash was hilariously portrayed by the supporting characters, as the lead characters interspersed the rough bumps with core commonality of thoughts and values of humankind. Anupam Kher, the chief presenter of the family farce as the loving, obsessive and paranoid dad who surreptitiously follows her willful daughter to America to escort her back is brilliant. He is comical in his cynicism, that softened the rough edges that would have other caught sight. Sushmita Mukherjee as the commonplace mother with unreasonable family values has also done a natural job. The duo as the conservative parents of their free-minded daughter has given a worthy comic-relief to the audiences. Tara Sharma as the nagging, over-protective and reality check giver is also good. She has utilized her snippets of screen appearance well by being the advisory friend figure to Priya, who loses here nerve at the drop of a hat.

Overall, the movie is an expertly concocted glass of frosted martini, that has the tang, the zing, the tenor and the ethos of a feel-good rom-com that leaves behind a feeling of jubilation.