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Encouraged by the short film's long and successful journey, and with the support and enthusiasm of our star Mr. Deep Roy, we've adapted the original story into a feature-length screenplay. Picking up where Mike Judge's Office Space left off, the feature carries the searing torch of satire into the 21st century, critiquing the corporate world with an insider's eye and a big-hearted empathy for its nameless drones. This time around the story doesn't rely solely on outsourcing to get across its themes, but explores the immigrant pursuit of the American dream in a humorous and original way. Deep Roy is excited to reprise his role as Sandeep Majumdar, and we're excited to bring his story to a wider audience. We have the script, we have the schedule, and we have the budget. The only thing we don't have...is you.
Who still believes in the American Dream? Who still believes that hard work and self-sacrifice will eventually pay off in the end? To those Americans just now pulling themselves from the mire of the Great Recession, the American Dream is nothing but an empty promise, a fatuous ideal left over from the post-WWII era. Though degraded in the eyes of our native sons, the Dream continues to captivate an ever-growing number of Indian immigrants, currently the third-largest immigrant group in the U.S. at 1.9 million. It is the journey of one such newcomer, computer programmer Sandeep Majumdar, that is at the heart of the absurdist comedy The Ballad of Sandeep.
During its lauded festival run, the short film version of the Ballad distinguished itself from other comedies in its dramatization of the effects of outsourcing on Sandeep and his co-workers. The feature-length version, in addition to exploring the ethical implications of outsourcing, wrangles with a broader and more varied set of themes: spirituality, materialism, human relations in a mechanized world, and the role work plays in defining the self. Ever mindful of its comedic obligations, the Ballad tempers these headier concerns with broad-stroke satire, subtle sexual innuendo, and a modest helping of old-fashioned slapstick, inspired in part by lead actor Mr. Deep Roy.
Deep, a 40-year veteran of T.V. and film, brings to the project a well-established fanbase. Ranked by IMDb as India's second-most recognizable actor, Deep attracts followers of Tim Burton, the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, and Danny McBride's HBO series Eastbound and Down. Science fiction devotees used to seeing Deep in exotic or freakish roles will enjoy watching him take off the mask and walk in the shoes of an ordinary man. Director Derek Frey and writers The Minor Prophets claim loyal fanbases in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, London, and Hawaii-not to mention a legion of Facebook friends from all over the sub-continent.
If Swami Vivekananda were to have a fever dream about Mike Judge's Office Space, that dream would be called The Ballad of Sandeep. Because so much of the film centers on the Indian immigrant experience and the philosophical tension between East and West, the primary target audience is Indian-Americans, demographically male, middle-class, and college-educated. But that audience must also include the 3.4 million Americans who, according to a Congressional Research Service report, have lost their jobs due to outsourcing since 2003; as well as the scores of men and women across the globe working in the IT field, the unsung heroes of our digital age; and, if they'd be so willing, the rest of the country's immigrant population, the new breed of pursuers ardently revising the old American Dream. |
