In her 2007 essay “The world as India”, American writer Susan Sontag highlighted how English, the “language of the conqueror”, still shapes Indian society, especially with regard to the world of work. One of her examples to prove her thesis deals with the nature of call centers where Indian employees have taken over an American identity along with English spoken in a distinct American accent in order to disguise their “Indianness”. The idea of pretended familiarity for the mostly American callers has had a somewhat disturbing influence on the workers in these call centers, some of which state they much rather would be this “Nancy” or “George” character they are playing when they take a call. In his short film “Coffee Shop Names” writer and director Deepak Sethi also explores these ideas of identity and culture using a similar modern setting, albeit with a rather comedic approach.
“Coffee Shop Names” is screening at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles
The film takes place in a coffee shop where three workers, all of which are Indian, wait for the barista to call out their orders. Since most Americans, including the barista, have trouble pronouncing their names correctly, they have been given American aliases such as Scott, Derek or Rachel, a subject of much discussion between the three of them. While they wait and discuss, they also fantasize about their American “identity” imagining what kind of life this person might lead.
Considering Sethi has worked on comedy for a long time, it does not come as a surprise to find this comedic approach towards the complicated issue of cultural identity. “Coffee Shop Names” often feels like a scene taken out from a sitcom with the three characters being the leads, a notion also highlighted since the majority of the themes is delivered through dialogue. Nevertheless, the writing is quite funny and on point with one of the highlights being when one of them becomes irritated when his American name is misspelled on the foam cup of coffee he eventually he receives. Even though he has confirmed his colleagues' complaints about Americans being ignorant when mispronouncing their names, he suddenly feels hurt in his new self-image closely connected to the name of “Derek”.
Additionally, the feature often jumps back and forth between the coffee shop setting and the various images linked to the American identity. Whereas all of the characters recollect their experiences with people mispronouncing their Indian names or eventually resorting to more American sounding surrogates, Sethi also shows how they have come to like the rather Hollywood-ized concept of their new names. The image of the hero or the self-confident shop owner are concepts linked to “Rachel” and “Scott”, beautiful fantasies and fairy tales which, in the end, may also highlight a growing disconnect with the character's original cultural identity or a growing awareness of how their cultural environment has changed them.
“Coffee Shop Names” is a smart and funny short feature about identity and cultural awareness. Deepak Sethi's clever writing and the likable characters make you want to delve in deeper into the ideas presented in this short film, ideas which might just as well fit into the sphere of the sitcom.
