A directorial masterpiece of Ashim Ahluwalia- John and Jane, is an observational documentary focusing on the lives of six call centre workers in Mumbai. The 83 minutes documentary touches upon various aspects of life, hardships, goals, dreams, ambitions and fantasies through the lives of these six Indian employees working for an American firm. To begin with, Ahluwalia has successfully managed to intertwine the idea of a miniature America embedded in the heart of Mumbai. The ‘4th Dimension’ office is replete with American flags, posters, pamphlets and quotations like- ‘Don’t mess with Texas’.

Just 15 minutes into the film, the audiences will start getting a hang of the narrative and the actual motive. The real issues of identity crisis and individualism are masked with an overlapping narrative of the events unfolding in the lives of the six selected employees. A particular dialogue goes like-

‘Are you an answering machine?’

And this simple statement is enough to subtly introduce the idea of the lost identity. The people calling for solutions are brutal and rude, and sometimes forget that they are talking to another human being. This idea is further intensified when we see the images of the ID cards of each employee flashing on the screen. They have no names, no address. They are merely Employee No. 123 and their blood group is xyz (just in case). 

John and Jane forces the audiences to think if it’s just the call centre employees that are caught in the vicious maze of work, sleep, repeat, or is it all of us. The further you go into the film, the more you will question dreams and existentialism. Ahluwalia also sneakily poses the question of patriotism. Had the film been made today, it would never have seen the light of the day. In a certain scene, Glen’s mother goes on to say, 

“Will your Indians give you a job like this.” 

This is yet another statement suggestive of the identity that the people have related to. They admit they feel closer to America as they speak their language, talk to their people and work in their culture. The American identity and culture has been so far drilled up in their conscience that that has become their alternate realities. And only when their shift is over and they come back to their cramped houses, that is when they realize that they are in India while their dreams still continue to fester for America.

This raises another issue of the sense of dislocation. The constant tussle between real life and the virtual. The fascination with the virtual that those people want incorporated in the real. But is that possible? 

Nicholas even goes on to say that he is fascinated with the Americans so much that “when english started coming to him, he got an American feeling.”  He got so enchanted that he “doesn’t even want to be an Indian anymore”. Ahluwalia leaves the audiences with a question- what does it mean to be Indian?

John and Jane is cut out slices of the lives of Glen, Sydney, Osmond, Nicholas, Nikki and Naomi. While it all seems easy, mundane, routine stuff in the foreground, a small nudge could make you see that is actually a combination of different facets of human beings and their desires- how they vary in their wiring and yet are so similar. Sydney wants to be a dancer (dreams), Osmond wants to be a billionaire (aspiration), Nikki constitutes love as she is content and selfless, Nicholas is more like an average youth who is satisfied and is looking for stable growth, and Naomi stands of longingness from friends and family etc. All these components together (along with a few more) are a sum total of what we call life. And the documentary has weaved it in the form of different characters to breathe soul in the complex structure. 

Towards the end of the documentary, we are introduced with the idea of John and Jane- who are they? As told by the english tutor in the documentary, John and Jane are the average Americans who are looking 'for individualism, for achievement and success, patriotism, privacy, progress and most of all Pursuit of Happiness.' 

But again, isn’t happiness subjective? How, for these people, the positive response of the customers is relative to happiness. Sydney finds happiness in dancing but if he can’t earn this money- he would not find happiness in dancing as well. Nikki says, ‘wherever I go, I will be happy.’ Nicholas’ only problem is that his’ and his wife’s work shifts do not match and so on and so forth. 

It won’t be wrong to say that the documentary (among other things) is also a comment on the middle class youth of today- endearingly called as John and Jane- caught in a maze of desires, goals and ambitions, not sparing a split second to relish any moment in a relentless pursuit of happiness.