Madhu, in Bangalore and her brother Uday, in America get laid off simultaneously and ponder their next career move. Their careers collide in a dizzying maelstrom of political corruption, business fraud and failed familial expectations. This film glimpses the complex ramifications of the rise and `stumble' of the IT industry in Bangalore. It reveals the insidious nexus of state politics with global capital and traces the seemingly disparate relationship that the software industry has upon mutual fund schemes. Stumble teases out the inter-dependence of the co-operative bank sector and the liberalized economy. Consequently, the film explores the clandestine ways in which the most vulnerable sections of society - in this case, rural farmers - nourish the richest and most powerful people in the world. A failing software concern reinvents itself as a call center - where again third world labor, in borrowed accents, services the first world consumer. Prakash Belawadi, the director, weaves these details into his narrative through an ironic critique. Belawadi clearly reveals the saturation of transnational capital, commodities, images, ideas, information and people in his (and my) beloved Bangalore. This unique moment in the city's life captures the exuberance of a newly emergent middle class. But while many things have changed, many others stay the same. Madhu does not travel to the U.S. with the same ease as her brother. The color of her skin darkens her marriage prospects. The mere presence of a white man bolsters the confidence and diminishing morale of local bank officials. Stumble finishes the story that Bugaboo (1999) started a few years ago. Set in Silicon Valley, Bugaboo chronicles the boom of the dotcom era, seen through the eyes of a skeptical Indian software engineer. What happens when that software engineer gets laid off and scrambles B2B (back to Bangalore) after his American dream failed to deliver? While Belawadi responds to that question, he also poses several others. The film is eminently watchable, especially for the performances of Ashok Mandanna, Anant Nag and Suhasini. While it falters in technique and script, the spirit of the film does not stumble.
