My mom watched a NBC sitcom called Outsourced, which I only watched to be with her, but not because I liked it. Eventually she saw the light and left me hanging because I’m a completist and finish what I start even if I don’t like it. It only lasted one season, but later on, I discovered that it was originally a movie and asked her if she wanted to see it. She didn’t so I added it in my queue. I don’t remember much about the series, but I must not have thought highly of it because I decided to watch it while multitasking on my iPhone and subconsciously paired it with I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, another movie that was about to expire on “My List,” aka the streaming Netflix queue. At some point, I realized that I was mistaken, stopped and watched it from the beginning when I got home on the 26-inch television.
Outsourced was a far better movie than a TV series. It is about Todd, a white American who can either refuse the assignment and lose his stock options or go to India and train people how to work at a call center that places orders for American Novelty Products. He chooses the latter. Until they can accept an order in six minutes, he cannot go home. Their mutual revulsion of each other gradually becomes respect and appreciation. Eventually they teach each other about their respective cultures.
The relationship with his eventual successor is much more cordial and complementary than in the series. Todd gradually begins to recognize that the hierarchy system that he has known is unnecessarily antagonistic and devalues human acts of kindness over efficiency. He is able to see that the people working under him as people with lives instead of interchangeable widgets. He also understands that they have a life outside of him that is just as valuable as his and probably richer in love. I really loved the ending and how he permanently breaks that model by unexpectedly offering an opportunity to his successor that would normally go to another American. I wish their was a sequel to see how his successor was doing.
I really appreciated that the cultural relationship in Outsourced was more of an exchange than a white savior scenario. Initially Todd is resistant to adjusting to his new situation and frustrated by the differences, but around the middle of the movie, he unclenches and just starts to go with the flow instead of trying to make Indians into Americans. The valuable lesson of the movie is that they bring something special to the table that will make the business more successful than cheaper salaries, a creative, innovative and practical approach to problems and life than Todd and American corporate culture is accustomed to. Adjusting strategies is important to reflect the context.
Even though some relationships are explored more than others, I really loved how the movie, unlike the series, focused on his mostly wordless interactions with his neighbors despite the language barriers. Outsourced really spends a lot of time focusing on India and Indians without feeling the need to fill every moment with dialogue. It is really about the beauty of the area and its people, not trying to hit every joke hard. There is a quiet dignity to the movie missing in the series. It is neat how Todd begins to get off the beaten path and explore his new surroundings without it immediately seeming relevant to the broader plot.
For me, out of the blue, Outsourced becomes a rom com, which I did not see coming. If I’m being honest, I liked Todd as a human being, but she was out of his league, and I’m not going to give any further details. I think that the only tone-deaf note of the movie was the romantic relationship. I could be completely wrong because I’m an American, but my impression of Indian culture is that it is highly taboo for a woman to engage in any level of physical romantic interaction with the opposite sex outside of marriage, which in this context was supposed to be arranged, not a love match. Many parts of the American Christian church share similar sexual mores, but it still happens so it is probably similar in India; however I don’t want to assume it is so. I think that it further stretches the scenario by having it be a white American. Would she find him attractive? Is he even smart enough? It happens fairly quickly, and they are colleagues. The writers are still white men so I took this portion of the story with a huge grain of salt. To be clear, I’m not saying that I didn’t like them together or thought that they didn’t have chemistry. I thought that they were adorable, but I’m not sure if I found it credible other than the movie would be better if there were a romance, and it was, but it didn’t take a similar approach to his professional life and felt like an imposed American value.
Outsourced features a lot of understated and unexpectedly hilarious moments. Be quiet and listen closely when Todd checks his voice mail. I nearly lost it. I highly recommend that you check this little movie out with the caveat that I have no idea if Indian viewers would agree with what I’m saying. I suspect that India is way more technologically sophisticated than the movie gives them credit, but I could go with it because I’m an ignorant American.