电影 Outsourced(世界是平的)

Outsourced is a modern day comedy of cross-cultural conflict and romance. Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton) spends his days managing a customer call center in Seattle until his job, along with those of the entire office, are outsourced to India. Adding insult to injury, Todd must travel to India to train his new replacement. As he navigates through the chaos of Bombay and an office paralyzed by constant cultural misunderstandings, Todd yearns to return to the comforts of home. But it is through his team of quirky yet likable Indian call center workers, including his friendly and motivated replacement, Puro (Asif Basra), and the charming, opinionated Asha (Ayesha Dharker), that Todd realizes that he too has a lot to learn - not only about India and America, but about himself. He soon discovers that being outsourced may be the best thing that ever happened to him
There is nothing in India more mysterious than the lovely land itself. The riot of colors, the careless jumble of the cities, the frequent friendliness and good humor of a people who are so different from us, except that, often, they speak the same language. More or less.
"Outsourced" begins with an American sent to India to train the low-paid employees of a new call center for his company, American
Novelty Products. It sells, he explains, "kitsch to redneck schmucks." His Indian assistant asks him, "Excuse me. What is 'redneck'? What is 'kitsch'? What is 'schmuck'?" And what are these products? American eagle sculptures. Wisconsin cheesehead hats. Branding irons for your hamburgers.
The American is named Todd (Josh Hamilton), although everyone hears it wrong and calls him "Mr. Toad." His assistant has a much more sensible name, Purohit N. Virajnarianan (Asif Basra). Although wages are low in India, Purohit will make 500,000 rupees as the new manager. That comes out to about $11,000, enough for him to realize a long-delayed marriage to his betrothed.
Todd is a stranger in a very strange land. Some of his experience reminded me of my own at the Calcutta and Hyderabad film festivals. He wildly overtips a beggar woman at the airport. He finds himself riding in one of those three-wheeled open-air taxis. He makes the mistake of eating street food. He encounters new definitions of the acceptable (on a crowded bus, a young boy politely stands up to offer Todd his seat, then sits back down on his lap). He is constantly bombarded by offers to go here, go there, buy this, see that. Sometimes these offers are worth listening to, as when they lead him to a charming rooming house.
And what about the call center itself? It looks like a concrete-block storage hut, still under construction. Inside, Purohit oversees 12 or 15 employees struggling with customer complaints. Question: "I'm ordering my American eagle from India?" Answer: "It is not made here, sir. It is made in China."
Average length of a call, over 12 minutes, Todd's instructions: Get it down to six. Impossible. He starts with pep talks and lessons in pronunciation: "Say you are in Chicago. Pronounce it sha-CAW-ga." They obediently repeat, "Shy-CALL-go." But one employee seems ahead of the curve. This is the beautiful, helpful Asha (Ayesha Dharker), who you may have seen in the title role of "The Terrorist" and the quite different role of Queen Jamillia in "Star Wars -- Episode II: Attack Of The Clones."
She questions Todd during his classes, tells him he needs to know more about India, has a smile that dismisses his doubts. She becomes his teacher on such mysteries as Kali, the goddess of destruction ("Sometimes it is good to destroy. Then things can start again.") And of course they fall in love, although it is not to be, because she was promised in an arranged marriage at the age of 4. "Then why are we here?" he asks her on a business trip, as they debate a position they find in a book at the Kama Sutra Hotel. "This is like a trip to Goa," she says, referring to the
idyllic southern province of India, formerly Portuguese. In her mind, before a lifelong arranged marriage, one trip to Goa is permitted.
"Outsourced" is not a great movie, and maybe couldn't be this charming if it was. It is a film bursting with affection for its characters and for India. It never pushes things too far, never stoops to cheap plotting, is about people learning to really see one another. It has a fundamental sweetness and innocence. Josh Hamilton, a veteran of more than 40 movies, finds a defining role here, as an immensely amiable man. To look upon Ayesha Dharker is to like her. And in a time when the word "chemistry" is lightly bandied about, what they generate is the real thing. As in most Indian movies, there is no explicit sex, but because this is a U.S. production, there is some kissing and waking up together under the sheets, and wow, it beats anything in the Kama Sutra
Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton) has to travel to India when his department is outsourced. Todd is not happy but when his boss Dave informs him that quitting would mean losing his stock options, he goes to train his Indian replacement Puro (Asif Basra).
Todd is frustrated with everything in the country where people call him "Mr. Toad". He has difficulty making the call center employees understand what their American customers expect. He feels that he is never going to get the MPI (Minutes per Incident) under six and so will never get to return to the USA.
One day, Todd rushes to Mumbai thinking he saw an advertisement for McDonalds only to realize it's a "MacDonnells". He meets a fellow call center trainer who tells him his own story, and that once he stopped "resisting" India it got better.
Todd returns and experiences the festival of Holi and with it, a sense of calm. At the call center the MPI slowly improves. He recognises a leader in an employee Asha (Ayesha Dharker) and offers her the job of assisting Puru when Todd leaves. Todd tries to improve the workplace experience for the employees; when they tell him they would like some of the products they are selling, he decides to implement a rewards program and asks Dave for a shipment. Dave initially refuses, but when Todd manages to convince him that he is opening the products to a market of a billion people, Dave agrees to ship them overnight.
Asha realises that the shipment has gone to another Gharapuri, an island. They reach the island and get the shipment, but the boat that was supposed to ferry them back catches fire. With no resort, they check in to
a hotel, where Asha accuses Todd of being frivolous with Kali. They argue but end up having sex. Upon their return Asha informs Todd that her marriage has been fixed with Ashok since she was four years old. She says this could be only a "Holiday in Goa", a term for a short time spent with a lover before marriage. Todd is confused but accepts the situation.
The MPI is at six when Dave calls to let Todd know that he needs to be picked up from the railway station. When Dave arrives, the power shuts down due to flooding, but the employees manage to set up their workstations on the roof and resume business. Dave is impressed, but when the employees go to the local bar to celebrate, Dave informs Todd the business is being shifted to China.
Todd informs the employees they have been fired, and Dave is erasing all data off their hard disks. Asha tells Todd that she has been writing a novel called Holiday in Goa that needs to be saved. Todd gets the hint and they leave to Gaurav's (another employee's) house, where they spend time together. Todd refuses to go to China but suggests Puru as a replacement. Puru can be seen leaving to China with his new wife.
Todd returns to Seattle and in the closing scene his phone rings with the special ringtone Asha set up and he can be seen smiling。