John & Jane (2005)

• 73%
• 2005
• Documentary
• Ashim Ahluwalia
• Glen Castinho
• Sydney Fernandes
• Oaref Irani

Shot on luminous 35mm film, John & Jane (2005) is an entirely original documentary that unfolds like dystopian science-fiction and follows the stories of six "call agents" that answer American 1-800 numbers in a Mumbai call center. After a heavy mix of American 'culture training' and 14-hour night shifts, the job starts to take its toll. Counterpointing the fluorescent interiors of late-night offices and hyper-malls with the uneasy currents swirling around the characters, John & Jane (2005) finds a young generation of urban Indians that exist 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 (2005) raises disturbing questions about the nature of personal identity and what it means to be human in a 21st century globalized world.