Hello (DVD) 2008 |  | Director: Atul Agnihotri
Actors: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sohail Khan, Isha Koppikar, Sharman Joshi
Studio: Percept Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $7.58
as of 3/10/2010 18:56 CST details
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New (5) from $7.58
Seller: NehaFlix-DVDs-CDs
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 158165
Format: Dolby, NTSC, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Language: Hindi (Unknown)
Region: 1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 130 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 0.5 x 5.5
EAN: 2604557310056
ASIN: B001L4POFK
Release Date: November 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Hello... is a tale about the events that happen one night at a call center. Told through the views of the protagonist, Shyam, it is a story of almost lost love, thwarted ambitions, absence of family affection, pressures of a patriarchal set up, and the work environment of a globalized office. Shyam is losing his girl friend because his career is going nowhere as he trudges his way around in a call center. His girl friend, Priyanka, is also an agent like him at the call canter who is about to be snatched by an NRI techno geek. There is also the aspiring model, Esha, who is hopping for the break that seems to be always already eluding her and the man about town, Vroom, who is into well, things. The housewife, Radhika, who is constantly at the receiving end of her mother-in-law and a beleaguered grandfather, Military Uncle, who has been barred from interacting with his grandchild make up the rest of the call agents who see their worlds crumbling around them as the decisions of right sizing are conveyed by Bakshi, the boss. It is a night when dreams will finally crumble. Or will it? For there is that call from God. Narrated as a tale within a tale as a beautiful woman meets the auteur narrator and promises him a story on the condition that he has to narrate it further.The movie ""Hello"" is based on Chetan Bhaqat's one night @ the call Center, is the one remarkable story from Tales from a Thousand and One globalizing, urban, Indian Nights.
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| Customer Reviews:
Enjoy the Bollywood Songs and Videos and Shyam & Prianka's love story, forget the rest February 21, 2009
C. Biegel (Chicago Metro-area, IL United States)
Nice Bollywood Numbers, but why isn't the "Hello" production number offered in full frame? After all, the movie is titled, HELLO.
Plot: You are introduced to a bunch of "working" class indians who work for a big call center. They all have some sort of problem, and it all comes to a head one night for each of them, along with the news that the call center is being downsized and some of them will lose their jobs. Shyam, is a cute hardworking geek, who is working with Vroom (family troubles and in love with Esha) on a web manual which Bakshi, the manager of the center, steals credit for. Priyanka has reluctantly agreed to family pressure to marry a NRI that lives in Seattle, and works for Microsoft, despite being in love with Shyam. Military Uncle is alienated from his family, now living in the US. Esha is dumped by the man who took advantage of her desire for a career. Radhika finds out her husband is unfaithful. With nothing much to lose, since they are all at risk because of the downsizing.... they all go on a spree to drown their misery at a local bar. On the way back a drunken Vroom drives them onto a bunch of wires overhanging a construction site. Waiting in fear for the car to drop from its precarious perch, "God" calls Shyam's dead cell phone and tells them things are crappy because their fears have cornered them into making poor life choices which is why things have turned as badly as they have. Enlightenment is to have confidence in themselves, make strong fearless choices, and and accept the possibility of failure.
OK, but hasn't anyone bothered to wonder if "God" in the movie would approve of some of the things they do to follow His advice and change their lives?
- That their cure for the downsizing of the call center involves spreading a false rumor about a virus to get people to call.
- That while Bakshi is not a nice guy, the whole group collaborates to falsify an email that he propositioned Esha, and use that to get him fired.
There are plenty of Shyams and Vroms in the US, but the only Americans you see are clueless housewives doing stupid things and calling the center, or 2 men sitting in an airplane, (I guess, to indicate wealth in comparison to the "poverty" of the call center workers) making a mean spirited call-in to the call center about a non-existent vacuum cleaner in order to make fun of a "Brown Skinned" kid. Most of the call center workers, with the exception of the Tamil networking guy, are not particularly brown. Skin color did not prevent whites from voting in President Obama. Bakshi's most obvious sin seems to be his fawning desire to get to Boston, stealing credit for Shyam & Vroom's web manual is a tired cliche, to help justify the group getting even.
The pointless calls of clueless Americans does not reflect the reality I have experiences.... I keep thinking about all the times I've called a call center, and they are unable to answer the question asked, they end up, apparently reading some answer from a list of canned responses.
Best thing is to enjoy the production numbers. Root for Shyam and Priyanka to get married. And ignore the mildly anti-western hazing.
Had unrealised potential; averagish well acted patchy play with a few good tunes April 26, 2009
Lyn (Melbourne Australia)
This is the story of 6 people who work together at a call centre and the various challenges in their lives. One night on duty, things start to unravel in their personal and work lives. When out of the building God calls on a mobile and gives them some words of wisdom to refocus their lives. As a background to this story we have a few brief interludes where Salman Khan, as a rock star, is having the story told to him by Katrina Kaif (after he does quite a good dance number - with the gratuitous shirt removal as usual!)
Now pretty much all the actors did a good job with the material. Sharman Joshi, Amrita Arora, Sohail Khan, Isha Koppikar, Gul Kirat Panag and Sharat Saxena are all very good. Even Salman Khan was a lot more considered and reflective than usual and delivered his performance more maturely that usual even though it was more a cameo.
The movie has a more real feel to it generally. It is more a play in the way something like Metro or Salaam-E-Ishq with a few dance numbers thrown in context (like a concert or on a dance floor). The music was catchy and westernised but there wasn't a lot of it featured. The stories of their lives went well if a little slow, flat and unremarkable.
It just seemed to die somewhere towards the end. It isn't a long movie and God calls late. There is then a last minute resolution that is meant to redeem India's respect and reputation in the international community in the call centre. However it's all done by manipulation, lies and dishonesty. There is some pretty negative and contemptuous lines about 'whites' and the West that would be regarded as racist if the situation were reversed. It wasn't that I was offended but it marred the direction the movie could have gone in. As a play it is well acted though and your interest is kept hanging with the early teaser that God would make a entrance as this could have been an interesting device (if it had been used better.
So it's a disappointment I won't be keeping though I may chase a few songs as downloads. Pity for Salman too as (despite the shirt removal cliche) he did quite a good job with his little bit. Elsewhere on the Net it is lucky to make average though women seem to like it more than men.
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