Outsourced (The Movie)

Have you heard of this movie? I sure didn’t. It was a recommend from a friend.

With that being said, I was glad I actually sat down and watched it. I read the description and thought it was going to be an enjoyable, fun flick about cultural differences and language barriers. I was expecting comedy, but I wasn’t quite expecting the storyline.

Josh Hamilton plays Todd Anderson, a call center manager who resides in Seattle, Washington. One day, his supervisor informs him that the call center is being outsourced to India, as this will benefit the company. While this means all that are currently employed there will be fired, Todd will have the very unique opportunity to travel to the new India division and train employees there, along with his new replacement, efficiently enough so that callers will not recognize the recent shift. Todd feels guilty and frustrated about everyone in his division losing their jobs, but has no choice but to head to India for his last job. Once there, he is immediately overwhelmed by the distinct differences of this land versus America, especially when everyone pronounces his name as “Toad.” He spends his days staying at the home of his replacement, Asif Basra (Purohit Virajnarianan) trying desperately to fit in, while heading to the office at night to teach the new employees about American culture. One new employee, Asha (Ayesha Darker) boldly suggests Todd learn about Indian culture first before trying to teach them anything new and Todd decides to take her up on that suggestion. What follows is Todd trying to learn this new culture while getting the call center to be successful.

From what I know about India and the culture there, I was a bit surprised and taken aback by some of the things that were said and done. Overall, it seemed to represent everything in a positive light, but some romantic issues that were touched upon were perhaps more unusual and sometimes a bit hard to believe. I liked the way the film was structured and that it did not rely on any stereotypes one would expect to see included in a film about culture clash. The actors all performed very well, and the ones who didn’t really have any lines contributed nicely to the comedic appeal of the movie.

It is fun to watch and a nice light-hearted movie. The script, the performance, and the respectable humor all combine to give this a 4 out of 5 stars. I also heard it has spun off into a tv series (that I have yet to see). Definitely worth the rent!