User Reviews

I knew someone who, in-between real jobs as he put it, worked one day as a telemarketer. That was all he could stand. He was desperate for work, found a call center that was hiring almost on the spot, and gave it a whirl. In no time he was speaking to people from other countries (with the help from a script on his computer monitor), and told me he had felt cheap and degraded. As soon as the training shift was over he quit and facetiously remarked to me that it drove him to psychoanalysis. I had this in mind as I watched BOMBAY CALLING. Here the workers inside a call center in India are shown actually liking what they do! Not only that, most of them think it's career material.

Most people that I know are of the opinion that telemarketing calls are a nuisance. They wonder what type of person would ever willingly want to work inside a call center. Check out these workers here. They're upbeat and enthusiastic, and some even go above and beyond the call of duty. None of them perform their task in a perfunctory manner, but with smiles on their faces. Although centered in Bombay, these are callers out to encourage Britishers and North Americans to change how they spend on their phone bills. What they have to offer is a discount on call charges.

Sometimes, the callers get no further into their rehearsed pitch than their telephonic salutation, before they are hung up on. Still, they do not become discouraged. Business is great. Team spirit is high, with hugs and high-fives all around.

Periodically, their equally gung-ho supervisor will call out to the staff with interjected updates on the day's performance. We hear from a few of the members whose goal in life is to be promoted to assistant manager or at least to team leader.

Although set in India, Ganesh and the Ganges seem to be the farthest things from these workers' minds. These are young adults who are outer-directed, aspiring, and citified. Not all are entirely secular, however. One happens to be Roman Catholic, and keeps a picture of Jesus with him inside his cubicle. If you think India is all about swamis and sitars, BOMBAY CALLING will totally enlighten your understanding of the country. One of the managers admits he's quite materialistic and that after family what he cares about most is making lots of money. Half-jokingly, he adds that he wouldn't mind being famous too. Upward mobility is the name of the game for these folks.

BOMBAY CALLING is not the most riveting of documentaries but it's worth seeing at least once in my opinion, especially if you're curious to know what life is like inside a call center. The movie ventures outside for a few scenes to show home life and footage of the local concrete jungle and these are of interest as well.

One thing that this acquaintance of mine told me about working as a telemarketer that he did not like was the objectifying feeling of speaking to people who were perceived largely as potential suckers (i.e. buyers) and not as real human beings. I thought of this as I sat watching this film.

BOMBAY CALLING takes us behind the scenes of a call center. There's one moment that has one of the trainers, during a group lesson, mimicking an overly polite Britisher on the phone, pretending to be disinterested and politely declining the sales offer, to the amusement of a roomful of trainees.

The telemarketers followed here are literally making a career for themselves by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, as anyone in sales knows its hit or miss. I have a great deal of respect for those who got promoted from within, but I hope they are able to market the skills they've earned for themselves. Telemarketing call centers seem unstable by what this documentary tells us at the end comments with the call center laying off most of their employees and our beloved personalities managing to find work at another call center but seemingly at the expense of their overall job security. In contrast, firms like Motorola, Dell and Microsoft that outsource technical support offer substantially more job security by requiring advanced degrees. I'm not sure I support some of these young people giving up on their educations to work in a highly volatile environment when simply finishing their education might allow them more stability with the same financial rewards that come with working in a call center. Easy money never comes cheap.