John And Jane- Twisted Tongues

At some point in Ashim Ahluwalia’s many award winner, John and Jane, a call centre trainer recounts the core ‘values’ of the average American - privacy, progress, sense of achievement, patriotism, pursuit of happiness and individualism. The rest of the film echoes the hollowness of these very words in the context of call centre employees in Mumbai catering to clients half the world away in an alien accent with alien names.
The film observes the lives of 6 young Mumbaikars who are negotiating with the humiliations and perks of a call centre job and hoping to ride on it to a place far away from their murky existences.
Now much has been said about the disquieting colonialisation by the American dream and the terrifying loss of cultural identity and pride in a country eager to immerse itself in the globalization and growth agenda vis-à-vis the BPO situation. If this film stands out it is because its form is engaging, impressionistic and immaculately controlled. It lays out its characters precisely and gently, trying as best as art can, not to judge, sympathize or appear voyeuristic. Lovingly framed images create a dreamlike edgy world, ready to host the strange lives of a generation caught between itself and pre-packaged well-being.
Naturally the film was well received abroad by critics and audiences tantalizingly intrigued and satisfactorily moved by the discovery that their annoying telemarketers have a name, face and disturbing lives in cramped decaying apartments to go with it. But if you live in Mumbai this Powai-Malad reality is about as shocking as the leper that hammers at your car window for a buck at traffic signals. The odd shifts, assumed names and accents cannot keep it from flowing into the mouth of the mainstream Bombay story. The American dream is indistinguishable from its Indian version today and Ahluwalia’s protagonists are aspiring for and struggling with the same things that afflict most of the city’s youth irrespective of where and who they are working for. Bombay has distorted politically and culturally the identity of its inhabitants as it has infused with possibilities the idea of India. It promises what it does on its own terms and leaves you scampering for an inner anchor. There are two ways to deal with its extremes - smoke pot and abuse like Glen does or dream with naïve denial about the promise of a better tomorrow like Irani does.
Either way, the film’s characters are going to mirror more the lives of you and your friends than a unique disposition created by the economic exchange between India and America. And unless it moves someone enough to take on the forces of globalization or abandon it all and move to the mountains, its greatest use will be to provide you with the comfort of knowing that in this city lonely as you might be, you’re never alone in your soup.
(The article originally apppeared in Mumbai Mirror)