John and Jane Calling

I saw JOHN & JANE last night. An interesting insight into a global communications and marketing system. While it says more about the mediated cultures of the United States than it does about India, in a global perspective it provides food for thought.

A fresh new blend of observational documentary and tropical science-fiction, JOHN & JANE follows the stories of six call agents that answer American 1-800 numbers in a Mumbai call center. After a heady mix of American culture training and 14 hour night shifts, the job soon starts to take its toll. Counter pointing the fluorescent interiors of late night offices and hyper-malls with the uneasy currents swirling around the characters, JOHN & JANE discovers a young generation of urban Indians that are beginning to live between the real and the virtual. However, this futuristic world of American aliases and simulated reality is not science fiction, these are the times in which we live. JOHN & JANE raises disturbing questions about the nature of personal identity in a 21st century globalised world.

"JOHN & JANE" Part documentary and part fiction feature, "John & Jane" is a film set in the call centers of Mumbai that explores the effects of globalization on six call agents. Indian by day and American by night, the employees' split-identity lives warp their sense of reality in a disturbing way.
Directed by Ashim Ahluwalia