Press 1 for technical support. Press 2 for broken hearts. Press 3 if your life has totally crashed. . . . Six friends work nights at a call center in India, providing technical support for a major U.S. appliance corporation. Skilled in patience–and accent management–they help American consumers keep their lives running. Yet behind the headsets, everybody’s heart is on the line. Shyam (Sam to his callers) has lost his self-confidence after being dumped by the girl who just so happens to be sitting next to him. Priyanka’s domineering mother has arranged for her daughter’s upscale marriage to an Indian man in Seattle. Esha longs to be a model but discovers it’s a horizontal romp to the runway. Lost, dissatisfied Vroom has high ideals, but compromises them by talking on the phone to idiots each night. Traditional Radhika has just found out that her husband is sleeping with his secretary. And Military Uncle (nobody knows his real name) sits alone working the online chat. They all try to make it through their shifts–and maintain their sanity–under the eagle eye of a boss whose ego rivals his incompetence. But tonight is no ordinary night. Tonight is Thanksgiving in America: Appliances are going haywire, and the phones are ringing off their hooks. Then one call, from one very special caller, changes everything. Chetan Bhagat’s delicious romantic comedy takes us inside the world of the international call center, where cultural cross-wires come together with perfect pathos, hilarity, and spice.

チェタン・バガットは、グローバル化に翻弄される現代インドの「静かな叫び」を、コールセンターという密室に凝縮させました。偽名を名乗り、自分を消して働く若者たちの姿は、アイデンティティを喪失した現代人の寓話です。本作の真髄は、絶望の夜に響く「神からの電話」という大胆な仕掛けが、単なる奇跡ではなく自立への覚醒として描かれている点にあります。 映像化作品がボリウッド特有の華やかさで魅せる一方、原作には活字でしか味わえない泥臭いまでの内省と切なさが充満しています。映像では零れ落ちがちな「虚構の名前で生きる苦悶」を深く掘り下げるテキストの力こそが、再生を誓う彼らの姿をより鮮烈に際立たせます。自らの声を奪還しようとする情熱的なドラマは、読む者の魂を激しく揺さぶるはずです。