Deccan Herald
Saturday, December 8, 2007

Offshore Review

By Namrata Iyengar

It’s the Cowboys versus the Indians all over again. Only this time, the cowboys are the American blue-collar workers and the Indians are, well, Indians — specifically, those living in the computer age and working in call centres. We’ve probably heard the story a million times before; the Americans are grouchy because they’re losing their jobs to the brown crew and the Indians do twice their amount of work for a fraction of what the goras were being paid. But trust me, you’ve never seen it depicted like this before.

In Offshore, you will not find any known faces other than veteran Satish Shah, but don’t let that cloud your judgement. The actors are fresh, enthusiastic and look like the people you work with — which helps make the story real.

The Fairfax Furniture company has decided to cut costs and outsource its call centre operations to an Indian company called Voxx. So the very people who will lose their jobs, namely trainer Carol Silvers (Tunis), must train the fresh-off-the-boat job thieves Nikhil (Bhoopalam), Anjali (Bhattacharjee) and Reva (Shenoy). But Carol decides to declare war against the Indians and jeopardises their every effort to learn — she gives them the wrong information, and torments them at every turn till they are driven to quit.

The trio must stick it out through the training programme, while their start-up company back in India must get through infrastructure hurdles (to put it lightly) to make sure the deal lasts.

Offshore pulls through as a captivating movie. There’s not a minute of boredom in it, thanks to great writing by Diane Cheklich, Peg Bogema and Chetana Kowshik. Although the camerawork was a bit rough around the edges (colours were a bit too stark for the eye and tight closeups don’t always bring out intensity), the actors more than make up for it. Deb Tunis is brilliant in her depiction of an over-40 woman who goes over the top in the fight to save her job.

Neil Bhoopalam, whom you’ve also seen on Channel [V], has the mark of a strong and soon-to-be-successful actor. Satish Shah also shines in a role that is different from his usual ones. He plays Devendra Tiwari, the head of Voxx, who wants to give his son Ajay all the encouragement he needs as CEO, but must still take over the reins when trouble is at hand — a great boss-cum-father figure.

If you’re a call-centre employee/employer, or know someone who is, or if you’re an Indian, you must watch Offshore!