Cold Call review: these salesmen are worth your time

Cold Call finds its best laughs in the gap between a sales trainer’s instructions and what his recruits actually do with them. Targets matter, of course, but so do office flirtations and finding ways to make the working day less strenuous. Thambidurai gets a fair amount of fun out of people who would be exasperating to supervise.

The four recruits come from different southern states and find common ground at a Bengaluru company. Siddu Moolimani, Santhosh, Shree Vaishnav and Krishna Vijay are easy company: their teasing and casual approach to training give the friendship an unforced rhythm. Shree Vaishnav’s innocent manner is particularly amusing. The city’s mix of languages also helps this feel like a workplace where people have arrived from elsewhere.

That relaxed approach has its limits. The film spends longer enjoying the lads’ distractions than establishing where their story is headed. A sales visit eventually puts them in the middle of a child’s kidnapping, with the police suspecting them. Having to use their training to get out of trouble is a neat way of making the job matter to the plot.

Moving between past and present keeps information coming, though several turns are easier to anticipate than the film seems to think. The crime thread provides urgency without entirely shaking off the earlier looseness. Saravanan’s bright city visuals and Pranav Giridharan’s lively music keep the mood buoyant through these changes of gear.

For all its affection for salesmen, Cold Call offers only a partial sense of their working lives. Targets and reprimands supply pressure, but the profession deserves more attention beyond the next comic situation. Still, the friends’ willingness to risk themselves for the kidnapped boy gives their eventual seriousness some purpose. They are easier to root for once somebody other than their manager needs them to deliver.