Hollywood meets Bollywood in this cross-cultural romantic comedy that is like a fusion dish gone quite awry. Despite having the potential to be as rich, diverse and exciting as the two cultures it tries to portray, this clichéd-ridden affair ends up being bland, dull and tasteless.
On one end of the line is New York advertising executive Granger Woodruff (Jesse Metcalfe), on the brink of losing his job if he can’t think of a good creative idea for his latest client’s hotel business. On the other end of the line is Mumbai call center employee Priya Sethi (Shriya Saran), pretending to be working out of San Francisco, calling Granger to clarify the thousands of dollars of suspicious charges on his credit card.
Priya’s job is an interesting predicament of globalization- multinational companies outsourcing some of their non-essential services to countries like China and India to reduce their labor cost. But don’t let this promising setup fool you; because this movie is simply content to be as formulaic as Hollywood comedies can be.
And so Priya is the free-spirited girl bound by custom into an arranged marriage, and in the pursuit of her own happiness, she flies to San Francisco to meet the man on the phone whom she feels she has developed a connection with. Naturally, Granger and Priya will meet and fall in love and do the inane things only Hollywood couples seem to do (including spending a pretty-picture filled day together exploring the beautiful City by the bay).
It doesn’t help either that the two stars Jesse Metcalfe and Shriya Saran don’t share much chemistry with each other. Once the to-die-for Desperate Housewives resident hunk, Jesse Metcalfe’s unfortunate wooden acting doesn’t make Granger endearing or appealing enough. Luckily, South Indian actress Shriya Saran fares much better, her performance as Priya nothing less than spirited and lively even through the script’s duller moments.
But she is outshone by an ensemble supporting cast from both sides of the divide. As the eccentric hotel owner Kit Hawksin, Granger’s latest client, Larry Miller brings some welcome comic relief. There is also especially much mirth to be had with veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher as Priya’s flustered father Rajeev Sethi, forced to embark on a cross-country chase after his daughter whom he fears is throwing away his ticket to an assured future for her and family.
Yes, even that sounds familiar- and you’re right to say that it smells very much like Bend It Like Beckham (right down to casting Anupam Kher as the exasperated dad of both headstrong girls). This only makes this movie even more disappointing, for it squanders its own rich interracial, intercultural and even international premise for something trite and done.
To its credit, there are occasional flashes of wit that will make you laugh- especially what goes on at the call center in Mumbai. Yet it isn’t long before the rest of the stodgy script suffocates what might have been an interesting blend of Masala spice and New York pizazz. Instead, what lies at the other end of this line is an awkward mix of East and West, unlikely to satisfy anyone on either side.
Alexa Rose 