À l'autre bout du fil

The Other End of the Line is a romantic comedy film scheduled to be released tomorrow, starring Jesse Metcalfe, Shriya Saran and Anupam Kher.

The film is based on an employee at an Indian call-center who travels to San Francisco to be with a guy she falls for over the phone.

It is the first combination between the Indian powerhouse production house, Adlabs with their American counterpart MGM. The film is co-produced by the Indian-American producer Ashok Amritraj and Patrick Aiello.

We had the privilege of watching the trade screening last night in downtown Toronto and I suggest all movie buffs not to miss this cute, refreshing Hollywood/Bollywood movie.

The first five minutes does not engage you the way most professional Bollywood films do, however until the end after is pretty entertaining.

Funny dialogues, lovely casting and performances! Go watch it!

A pretty generic and formulaic story is fortunately saved by able, charming performances. The chemistry between the leads is good. Priya as a character is well-drawn, she is beautiful, and her internal conflict being trying to free herself from the shackles of the responsibilities of an indian woman within an indian family is interesting. The build-up to the romance and the conflict are quite predicable but are nevertheless fun to watch. There's comedy that's mostly coming from Priya's parents. Overall, The other end of the line adds nothing to the romantic comedy genre apart from being cross-cultural, but it's enjoyable.

Granger and his partner Charlie are struggling in the advertising business. They make a sultry and suggestive presentation to Kit Hawksin of Hawksin Hotels, a very demanding businessman. Hawksin is very disappointed that the ad executives do not get his conservative views, but he agrees to give them another chance.

While in bed with his intimidating girlfriend Emory, Granger receives a call from CitiOne Bank saying his identity has been stolen. It is the first of many contacts Granger will have with "Jennifer David", who claims to be from San Francisco. Actually she is Priya Sethi of Mumbai, India.

Priya is engaged to Vikram but doesn't love him. As is often the case in India, it is an arranged marriage and her conservative parents don't care what Priya wants. They are even bothered that she works the night shift (because that is daytime in the United States, where CitiOne wants its customers to think the callers are from) and seem to want her to leave that job. But Priya is very good at her job and enjoys it; she mimics an American accent perfectly. And we see the training the employees get: it's quite detailed and we see how her employer expects everyone to convince people they are American.

Charlie, meanwhile, is also about to get married, and Granger will be his best man. This provides even more distractions.

As part of his effort to win over Hawksin, Granger and Charlie have to go to San Francisco. This gives Priya a chance to meet Granger, and she reluctantly agrees to do so--in order to talk about business. She has relatives in the area and her family believes she is visiting them. Never mind how she gets so much time off work.

But when Granger arrives at the meeting place, he sees several girls who could be "Jennifer". Realizing she has seen granger, and knowing she will never live up to his expectations, she gives up on trying to meet him. But then Granger bumps into her--literally. Granger and Priya immediately make a connection, and to make sure their relationship will work, Priya keeps quiet about her real identity, claiming to be a nurse from India on vacation.

It just so happens Priya is staying at Hawksin Hotel, and Hawksin meets both Granger and Priya. He asks Priya for an evaluation of his hotel and she does a wonderful job, worthy of one of his commercials. For that he rewards her with one of the finest rooms.

Meanwhile, Priya's parents wonder what has happened to her, and they angrily take off for San Francisco to retrieve their wayward daughter.

Over the course of the movie, Granger and Priya run into numerous obstacles. Will they overcome them?

Well, I can say this much. The ending is nothing short of amazing.

Shriya Saran is beautiful, adorable, easy to like and quite talented. She does a very convincing American accent and comes across as very intelligent, though she's just cute enough not to be threatening.

Unlike Sara Foster, who is merely pretty, but we don't want to like her and we're not supposed to want her and Granger to make it.

Jesse Metcalfe also does quite a good job. Especially in one scene toward the end, but I don't want to give away too much. I'll just say he talks about the time he and Charlie went to summer camp.

The clash between cultures provides some opportunities for comedy, and both leads make this work.

Austin Basis is appealing, coming across as an friendly but somewhat incompetent. I especially liked how Hawksin intimidated him and pointed to his proper and quiet Japanese associate of thirty-plus years. Larry Miller, as Hawskin, also does a very good job as a demanding businessman.

The conservative Indian relatives make this movie different. The father Rajeev is determined to keep his family in the past but realizes he is fighting a losing battle. He is appealing in a bumbling way.

There is one hilarious scene at the San Francisco hotel involving words that can have more than one meaning. The movie does get slightly naughty from time to time, and it would be hard to describe it as a family film, but the version I saw likely had some offensive material cut out for broadcast TV and was relatively clean.

It's mostly formula but it's a winning formula.

Movie was very pleasant to watch and I enjoyed the movie and its story line. Some may call it simple because it won't have you on the edge of your seat with drama but it is nice movie that shows that simple love is better than all the wild life that is out there. Someone else commented that her family is a little over done but if you watch Bolywood movies you know that the humor is funny in its own way even when exaggerated. Plot line is nice and I like the ending and the fact that she never bows to sleeping with him before marriage. After all his past ways and choices have not produced real happiness and her class far excels anything he had before and he realizes this. There is enough slut junk out there to watch, it was nice to have a quality story line. I did not think the bachelor party part or the comments on strippers by Granger gave him much class but he later redeems himself by chasing after the good that is in Priya and realizing that all his former girlfriend has to offer (self gratification) is not as valuable as someone you love (Priya). A good movie that I enjoyed.

Well,I didn't have so much expectations from this movie.But the way it turned up,I kinda liked it pretty much. Its a perfect piece for 'getting-to-know' Indian women.Priya Sethi is well put up a character.Watch her character closely.There so much in it.And Shriya saran played it amazing,a perfect justice to the young innocent character dreaming high.You will definitely like Charlie(Austin Basis) too.Jesse metcalfe has done a fair job.Anupam Kher Also too good. This piece is much portrayed from Indian angle.Alhough sometimes the romance seemed to me induced sort of,but it went well at the spot.Women at call centres must watch it.

Fresh,alive,very much a positive romantic piece.Worth-watching!!