Visa problems of Silicon Valley tech worker speak to immigration issues
Visa problems of Silicon Valley tech worker speak to immigration issues
Set in Silicon Valley during the 2008 recession, the film also takes a sometimes comic look at broader questions of assimilation involving young Indian workers in America.
Vivek (Ali Fazal) is a capable software engineer who yearns to leave the Bay Area corporation he’s working for to join a health care startup.
A telling point is that some Indian tech workers in substantial jobs are afraid to buy furniture because of the real danger that they may be forced to return to the land of their birth.
Most are angry or resigned, but some are able to strike a note of gallows humor.
The theme is given voice by an older and very successful Indian entrepreneur who has just written a book urging young Indians who are working abroad to return home and use their skills to help their country.
After some floundering around — including a funny sequence devoted to “Bollywood speed dating” — Vivek meets Shveta (Melanie Kannokada), a smart and competent young woman who is fed up with the dating scene but takes a shine to our hero.