If Hamlet were Indian and concerned only with deportation, this would be his story. The question is if you take out the thrones and revenge and existentialism of the Shakespeare masterpiece, what have you got left? The answer? Not much.
While Hamlet was busy with skullduggery unpleasant, Vivek Pandit (Ali Fazal) is busy with … indecision. Vivek has a way to revolutionize health care through self-invented algorithm, but cannot get a potential new employer to bite before his visa is threatened. Returning to a job he wants to quit, Vivek realizes he has a year left before he must depart the United States, but a green card will take a minimum of 11 months to obtain. He combats this narrow window mostly by being disgruntled about coworkers, parents, HR, and a series of flat-mates and potential dates, none of whom he seems to enjoy.
I honestly wish there were more to this movie. For Here or To Go? is less a drama than a way station where problems either linger and go unsolved or diffuse without revelation. For instance, national security shenanigans involving friend-of-a-friend expose, perhaps, the unfairness of the system or the guilt-by-association conundrum, but even the most vehement supporter of immigration rights has to admit that if you house a guy who is a security threat, of course the government is going to put you on a watch list. It stands to reason. Tracking down the loose Sikh yields little payoff in either plot resolution or perspective.
Billed as a comedy, For Here or To Go? milked most of its humor in jokes I didn’t get about people from Southern India. The subject matter hardly lacked for potential humor: there were plenty of jokes to be made about the fact that Vivek has a new roommate every time he turns around … or that he seems to be dating only girls named “Shveta” or even in the simple fact that every company in the area depends so heavily on Indian IT. Alas, none of these potential mines were tapped for anything but awkward pauses.
For Here or To Go? is not without instruction –I had no idea how much the ability to remain in the United States was tied to the success of one’s company. If you are in the United States on a work visa and your company fails, you could well be on your back to India within the week. Personally, I think every single American business with a major internet presence should have a section of HR devoted entirely to citizenship. It is clear that Americans depend on foreigners for all sorts of technical jobs, including, apparently, election hacking. As the
United States has made no solid commitment to science at this time, it needs to reach out to potential useful allies –that describes literally millions of Indian people.
It saddens me to pan this film. For Here or To Go? is set in the Bay Area and, hence, this is a tale that describes almost literally dozens of people I see at work every day. The last twenty minutes spelled out the missing perspective from the first hour, succinctly describing what it is to be Indian inside and outside of the United States. The perspective is honest, open and non-judgmental, merely suggesting perhaps this struggle might seem familiar to your ethnic group as well. And for that, I wish the movie were more compelling. The film has its heart exactly in the right place; the problem is that it takes so long to show it that by the time For Here or To Go? arrived at the station, I‘d already hopped on the bus to Boss Baby. Sadly, the titular fast food query here exactly reflects the lack of depth within.
♪Oh, who are the people in your IT ‘hood?
In your IT ‘hood?
In your IT ‘hood?
Say, who are the people in your IT ‘hood?
The people you deport each day♫
Not Rated,105 Minutes
D: Rucha Humnabadkar
W: Rishi Bhilawadikar
Genre: Who are the people in your IT ‘hood?
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Indians in America
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: “Build that wall!”
♪ Parody inspired by “People in Your Neighborhood”
