Karnataka   

Outsourcing: celebrating the Indian spirit

A scene from‘Offshore’

Offshore (English)

Cast: Satish Shah, Neil Bhoopalam, Ratnabali Bhattacharjee, Malaika Shenoy

Director: Diane Cheklich

“Offshore” is a corporate tale of cowboys and Indians. The movie uses multiple points of view to study outsourcing. There is the father-and-son Indian business model all set to conquer America on a wing and a prayer. There are the billion hopefuls in India with dollar dreams twinkling in their eyes. There are also the Americans who live from pay check to pay check who look at the Indians as evildoers out to steal their jobs. There is the antacid-popping CEO who needs to cut costs or face the sack. There is also the NRI who does not want to return to India as he is used to the American way of life. So there is an American furniture company, Fairfax Furniture, that decides to cut costs by outsourcing its call centre to an Indian company, Voxx. Fairfax employees are furious about losing their jobs to Indians. Voxx sends three trainees to Fairfax to learn the ropes. The Fairfax employees led by Carol with a little help from local muckraker Amanda Case declare war on the trainees with the hope that the trio will throw in the towel.

The film uses a straightforward narrative and does not try anything fancy to tell what is essentially a simple story. Characters are delineated in broad brushstrokes. There is the rebel, the sagacious father, the eager-beaver son, the hard-working lad, the good American, evil white trash, the wicked journalist and the ruthless proprietor.

While this is not a regular mainstream film — there is no love story and no songs — the heart is definitely Bollywood.

A fairly enjoyable film that does not reach for the skies and so does not disappoint.

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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