I knew nothing about this film called OUTSOURCED. I had never heard of it. I was just channel surfing at our home in our village and happened to stumble upon the listing for this movie on the programme schedule. The synopsis sounded interesting. An American whose job has been outsourced to India coming to India to train his replacement. I thought, another culture-clash film. I was quite right, though. Plus, I was informed that the film starred one of my favourite actors, Ayesha Dharker, who is playing the lead opposite Josh Hamilton who I just faintly remember as the handsome young man from Ismail Merchant's 'The Proprietor'. I found Josh Hamilton good-looking and I've always loved to see Ayesha Dharker and, honestly, I had nothing good to do that afternoon, so, I sat down to watch OUTSOURCED and enjoyed it immensely.<br /><br />OUTSOURCED shows India in all her exotic splendour – there is Ganesh, Kali, the Shiva Lingam, the ubiquitous Bollywood number, Holi celebrations, cows on the road, juicy mangoes, even a garishly decorated hotel suite called the Kama Sutra suite – but nowhere does it present India as a poor, backward or a Third World country. The film starts with the power of India. Quite flattering. We see a whole bunch of Americans losing their jobs because their jobs have been outsourced to India. Then, there is this disgruntled American, Todd (Josh Hamilton), who is being sent to India by his boss Dave so that he could train the new recruits on American society, culture and accent and tell them how much important those cheese-shaped hats are to them. "Kitschy", he calls them.<br /><br />The fun begins the moment our hero lands at the Mumbai airport. He misses the driver who had been sent to pick him up because that poor fellow was holding a placard that said "Mr. Toad" instead of "Mr. Todd". And so poor "Toad" has to travel on an auto-rickshaw, then by the local train (which he was trying to board with all the western civility, brandishing his ticket, but has to come down to the Indian method of jumping randomly into any compartment when he sees that there is no space), and then over the potholed and cow-filled roads of the real India. He eats a "barf ka gola" and encounters another very Indian problem. No change. Because of this he has to pay a one-hundred-rupee note just for one ice lolly. We Indians would have somehow managed to find a few ten-rupee notes.<br /><br />Then, there is this guy he has to train. The stars-and-stripes-in-his-eyes guy, Puro (Asif Basra), who thinks his fiancée is more beautiful than Aishwarya Rai. Of course, Mr. Puro, too, calls our hero "Mr. Toad". "Mr. Toad" has to teach Puro how to make "small talk". First, he has to explain to Puro the meaning of "small talk", "kitsch", and the like. Then, "Mr. Toad" puts up with aunty ji (Sudha Shivpuri, 'Ba' of 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi') who tells our hero that eating with the left hand is "unclean". Her errands-man then demonstrates to a shocked "Toad" why eating with the left hand is unclean in a scene which had me rolling in laughter. Aunty ji cleans, starches and irons "Mr. Toad"'s underwear because that is what all Indian mothers do.<br /><br />"Mr. Toad" has a bout of diarrhoea, is shocked to see a cow walking into his office; learns of the power of Goddess Kali; comes to know the meaning of Shiva Lingam; plays Holi; has his mobile phone stolen and returned and stolen again and returned again; dances to the "Sajan ji ghar aaye" song from 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'; befriends a man from the dhobi ghaT; dresses up in a kurta; eats a ripe mango the Indian way, by peeling it with teeth and sucking on the pulp; does a very typically Indian "jugaad" (which is the Indian art of very economically managing big things with the least resources) of electricity with his friend from the dhobi ghat when his office is flooded and lines are down; and falls in love with the stunning and smart call centre employee, Asha (Ayesha Dharker), who opens his eyes to why the Indians and our English is superior to that of the Americans. Because, our pronunciation is better – accurate, in fact – and we pronounce Internet as "Inter -Net" and not "Inner-Net" the way the Americans do. Sadly, the hero discovers that this smart Indian woman who could have been his true love is already engaged to be married, and he is shocked to learn that she was engaged when she was only four. When he tells her that he found this early engagement stuff very odd, she tells him that she found the nearly 50% divorce rate of the Americans odd. Smart.<br /><br />I realise I have revealed too much about this film, but that was unavoidable. I liked every second of this film. Every second means each second. The scenes, the sets, the dialogues, there is nothing which seems exaggerated. The end of the film, too, is very positive. The film starts with a laugh and ends with a smile and I sat till the end credits ended. I liked OUTSOURCED that much. The story, the direction, the acting, the soundtrack, everything is just right. OUTSOURCED is a great film. Just watch it.<br /><br />P.S. I noticed that the producer of this film is Tom Gorai. Now, Gorai is a common surname in eastern India. I was wondering if Mr. Gorai was an NRI and if this is a film with some Indian connection. I later did some Wikipedia research on Tom Gorai and learnt that Mr. Gorai is an American. OUTSOURCED is a complete American work on outsourcing and India and the US. And it is a very funny and quite sensitive film. This, I believe, is its real strength. Watch it. Watch it.