The Other End Of The Line

Genre: Romance

Language: English

Director: James Dodson

Cast: Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives), Shriya Saran, Anupam Kher (Bend It Like Beckham), Sara Foster, Austin Basis and Larry Miller

Runtime: 106mins

Official Website: http://www.theotherendoftheline.com/

Plot:

Beautiful and radiant, Priya Sethi (Shriya Saran) indulges her infatuation with American culture by working at the Citi One Bank Card call center in Bangalore, India. Speaking in perfectly unaccented English, she tells her customers her name is Jennifer David and a native of San Francisco. She happens to call the handsome and charming Granger Woodruff (Jesse Metcalfe) to help him with the fraudulent charges on his credit card. Priya and Granger have an instant connection over the phone. Unable to suppress the intrigue their easy chemistry offers, Priya agrees to meet Granger in San Francisco. She gets on a plane and crosses not only an ocean, but entire cultures as well.

Watched on 20 Feb night @ Cathay Cineleisure.

I am very familiar with the call centre environment. I know what the agents are behind those telephone lines. But the movie was a bit off realistic as in the real call centre, i don't think there is time for an agent to help her client on cold remedy or to give advice on his project.

Nevertheless, being a romance story, the plot was really romantic in a certain aspect. A girl falls in love with someone she barely knew through only phone calls and biography over the net, knowing that she shouldn't marry someone she doesn't love. Sometime, I really wonder if men out there, are they really that slow to realise their true feeling, or even the girl's feeling.

The father character, played by Anupam Kher, bought some much laughter to the movie. His panicky and sense of protection for his daughter were both funny yet justifiable. Although as a traditional Indian family, a daughter should marry someone her family arranged, he gave in to his daughter for her dream. And i was impressed by him standing by her daughter's decision even when the other family despised her. How fatherly...

I have watched 2 movies about India, Slumdog Millionaire and this. Glad that I was able to see Mumbai without having to travel there myself as i most likely cannot stand with the smell. In fact this movie tends to compare the 2 cities (Mumbai and San Francisco) and I like the way of presentation.

ah-deng says: 2/5 The usual fairy tale with a long distance relation and culture touch.