The Other End of the Line

February 12th, 2009







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The Other End of the Line

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Still of Jesse Metcalfe, Larry Miller and Shriya Saran in The Other End of the LineStill of Shriya Saran in The Other End of the LineThe Other End of the LineStill of Jesse Metcalfe and Shriya Saran in The Other End of the LineStill of Anupam Kher in The Other End of the LineStill of Jesse Metcalfe and Shriya Saran in The Other End of the Line

Plot
An employee at an Indian call-center travels to San Francisco to be with a guy she falls for over the phone.

Release Year: 2008

Rating: 5.9/10 (2,027 voted)

Critic's Score: 40/100

Director: James Dodson

Stars: Jesse Metcalfe, Sara Foster, Anupam Kher

Storyline
Struggling to convince his new hotelier client, Kit Hawksin, Granger Woodruff is told by one Jennifer David that his identity has been compromised, and his credit card is being misused. While tracing transactions, both become friendly and agree to meet in San Francisco at the Hawksin Hotel. She does not show up, and Woodruff befriends an East Indian woman, Priya Sethi, who has come to attend a relative's marriage. Woodruff will get a rude awakening when he finds out that Priya is actually Jennifer - who is the fiancé of wealthy Mumbai-based Vikram Bhatia - and has traveled there without informing her family. He will also incur her dad's (Rajeev) wrath, who has been compelled to travel there, along with his wife, Manju, to first locate, and then escort Priya back home to get her married to Vikram.

Cast:
Jesse Metcalfe - Granger Woodruff
Shriya Saran - Priya R. Sethi
Larry Miller - Kit Hawksin
Michael Chen - Mike
Nouva Monika Wahlgren - Ula (as Nauva Green)
Sara Foster - Emory Banks
Harry Key - New York Waiter
Austin Basis - Charlie Hendricks
Tara Sharma - Zia
Sushmita Mukherjee - Manju R. Sethi
Jai Thade - Govinda R. Sethi
Kiran Juneja - Aunt Pimmi
Suhita Thatte - Priya's Aunt #2
Anupam Kher - Rajeev Sethi
Avantika Akerkar - Miss Prasad

Taglines: Two countries. Two cultures. One chance at love.



Details

Official Website: MGM [United States] |

Release Date: 12 February 2009

Filming Locations: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Opening Weekend: $59,078 (USA) (2 November 2008) (91 Screens)

Gross: $115,504 (USA) (7 December 2008)



Technical Specs

Runtime: USA:

Goofs:
Factual errors: It is shown in the movie that Priya suddenly decides to take off for USA and the very next day she's in the US. The same happens with Granger, as he suddenly walks out of his friend's wedding and takes off for India. Both scenarios are impossible as it takes quiet a long time (weeks) for Indians to get a US tourist visa approved after a long process and for American visitors to get an Indian Visa approved. None of the two countries have got "visa-on-arrival" or "visa free entry" treaty for citizens of their counterpart country.

Quotes:
Granger Woodruff: Nothing should ever hold a man back from his future.



User Review

A Nutshell Review: The Other End of the Line

Rating: 7/10

Much has been said about the outsourcing of call centers to India, but so far I haven't seen one portrayed in a film in this manner, where Ifelt the portrayal of its inner workings was one of the better moments in his romantic-comedy. As far as I can recall, those who make cold calls to me for surveys, credit sign up and the likes, seem to sound local, or have that distinct regional accent that wasn't disguised, but if things happen per the movie, I won't be surprised that I was duped to believe they're calling from somewhere locally, rather than from abroad.

So welcome to the world of tele-marketers/helpdesks agents/salespersons, where in-house training centres established take their employees through continuous training in order to ensure their accent are masked, their pop-culture knowledge brought up to speed, and they're well-versed in local colloquial terms, so that they seem to be your friend from next door when they talk to you, rather than a feeling of resentment knowing that their neighbours job has gone offshore. It's no easy training, and naturally one that calls for great measure of patience for facing phones being slammed down, or worse to stand up to verbal abuse in many forms.

The Other End of the Line is your standard romantic comedy, which in my opinion got lifted from mediocrity thanks to this aspect of the story that I had a peek into. However, like most east-west fusion films made by Hollywood on Indian culture or aspects of India, it does get romanticized a great deal, and shots of Mumbai looked far too much like it's being lifted from a tourism board promotional video, or some tourist's excitable travel video of an exotic locale that he came back from. Think along the lines of Mistress of Spice, and Bride and Prejudice, and you have an idea how this story by Tracey Jackson had been approached by director James Dodson.

Priya Sethi (Shriya) works in a call centre in Mumbai belonging to CitiOne Bank (no prizes here), and her daily night shift (to be on the same timezone as the USA) gets frowned upon by her conservative family (Anupam Kher from Victory as Dad, and Sushmita Mukherjee from Dostana as Mum), even though she's earning good money to become the chief breadwinner, versus than her insurance salesman dad. She adopts her Jessica David profile for calls she makes to CitiOne's customers, putting on a perfect American accent as she speaks to strangers every night, only to call on a handsome young man (she knows because she Googles) Granger Woodruff (Jesse Metcalfe of John Tucker and Desperate Housewives fame) who had his identity stolen and a whole host of credit card transactions erroneously billed to him.

The both of them strike up a friendship as they speak frequently to clear up and verify his credit card transactions, and with one thing leading to an impulsive another, they set up a date, even though she knowingly lives on the other side of the world in India, while fibbing that she's actually in San Francisco, a city which Granger would be going to for a make or break advertising deal with a hotel chain.

As with any romantic movie, the chemistry between the couple is important for it to be believable that they're falling for each other, and in this aspect both Jesse Metcalfe and Shriya excelled in, looking good on screen as they share plenty of romantic moments the plot had thrown at them. You'd find yourself inevitably rooting for them as they overcome expected challenges, knowing that these issues will probably not be show stoppers, since they conflict with the type of characters they are, strong-willed and stubborn as a mule toward tradition that the modern generation do not buy into, or just don't buy into spending time with someone they don't believe in.

Possessing some amazing powers and ability to hear from a distance, The Other End of the Line is a long-distance infatuation that took on a life of its own, where characters step out of their comfort zones to pursue what their heart tells them. Since it's just a few days after Valentine's, this movie got made and released now for a reason, to have you partake in some lovey-dovey movie with comedy courtesy of a traditional family thrown in for good measure. Need a movie for a romantic night out? Then The Other End of the Line will satisfy that objective. Nothing fancy, but it works.





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