The horrors of downsizing

Fired is a bad movie with some interesting subtexts.

Directed by Sajit Warrier (his debut film), Fired tells the story of one Joy Mittal, the newly minted CEO of a British company whose offices are in a plush skyscraper in the heart of London.

It's the history of Mittal's rise from manager to CEO that's interesting: The British company is acquired by an aggressive Indian multinational, and Mittal had played a key role in the acquisition. Thus the Indian multinational rewards him richly with the mantle of a "group CEO."

However, the Indian multinational also wants something equally rewarding in return from Mittal; he is asked to help them downsize without taking the blame of being a brutal and unfeeling company. 

Mittal obliges and in the course of one day successfully fires all 123 employees from the company. All the employees are white and British (presumably).

One of the victims of the downsizing is Ruby, a white, sexy seductress (she even speaks accented Hindi), who also has an affair with Mittal (Mittal is a married man) and together they have a child Angela.

The woman feels betrayed and haunts Mittal on his first full day as CEO inside the office. Mittal is trapped inside the building and can't escape to go home to his wife, who is also a victim of Mittal's adultery. The haunting could be a projection of Mittal's guilt at having betrayed his wife's trust and having fired employees en masse. Mittal is also shown to be hooked to antidepressants and the movie hints at the possibility that he hallucinates under the influence of drugs and alcohol. 

The film ends with Mittal going insane and driving himself to death after two gruelling hours of haunting by the ghosts of his victims. The message is got: downsizing not only kills livelihoods but also for the very same reason, takes lives. Both the instrument of the downsizing (in this case Mittal) and the victims suffer the consequences of corporate inhumanity.

Now to dredge up the subtext: For the first time, I'm seeing an Indian multinational as the aggressor. I am guessing that the finger is being pointed at Laxmi Mittal, the Marwari businessman who made it globally as the owner of Mittal Steels, the world's largest steel manufacturing company.

Mittal's rise from being part of a business owning company in Kolkata, India, to becoming a corporate giant known to be the wealthiest British who doesn't hold a British passport yet, is marred by rumors of dubious business practices, but that's pretty Indian, if you will.

It's the role that has been accorded to "India" that took me by surprise. Usually the brutal takeovers are done by American MNC's in a tedious repeat of the imperial theme. In Fired, the trend is refreshingly reversed, though Mittal himself is also "killed" in the process.

The brown-skinned CEO is punished for his crimes of firing white employees.