Todd and Asha's Relationship

[mchspd]

My wife and I just finished Outsourced during our mishap with Hurricane Ike here in the Houston area. It was a very enjoyable laugh of "insider" views of India. I think this is one of the better (perhaps best) shot movie with the real Indian backdrop. Usually I have seen perhaps one or two jokes about life in India but this movie was such a home run with so many of the scenes laughable but also respectful of the difference. What suprised us was the hotel scene with Todd and Asha.

The sudden "intimacy" was not well established to justify the protraying cheapness of an Indian woman. With the understanding and real life time spent in India that Jeff had, I would assume he would understand that Indian men hold our women in the highest regard.

The character was independant and smart, but it should be said to the foreign traveler passing through the country to find an Indian woman to "roll the dice" in society and cultue for a quick fling absurd. Its nonsense and made the romance aspect of the movie weak.

For all the effort and skill it took to make this movie, this was a uninspired and unfortunate way to do this. The movie showed respect for India yet something so pivotal for both characters came at the expense of an smart, promising Indian woman.

[Marvin Israel]

I have been to India twice and this movie made me feel as though I were back again, but I have to agree that I found Asha's willingness to be physically intimate with Todd unrealistic. This is based on whatever smattering of knowledge I've gained about Indian society, namely, the importance of family, of others' opinions of you, and of virginity before marriage. I would not think this could have happened with a young, middle-class woman.

[John Jeffcoat]

Indian traditions are being challenged with this new generation of call center workers and stories of indecent behavior in the workplace turn up with more frequency each year.

It's a relatively new trend in India, but it is growing fast and creating a lot of worry. We only touched on this in the movie, my guess is that it will become more rampant each year. As these young people are trained to act like westerners on the phones, the western persona's they create for themselves after watching episodes of Friends and movies like American Pie don't necessarily stay at the office. Here are a few articles:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article742928.ece

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1530907/Call-centres-are-...

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200611/14/eng20061114_321249.html

[Mark Donaldson]

Although I agree with the others about the sudden intimacy. At first it did throw up a bad image of Indian women, but a few scenes later Asha tells Todd that this is the only time she has done this. I think this was s good way to smooth out the edges. It would have been better if they led up to this, but I do believe in love at first sight. When I met my wife for the first time, I fell for her head over heels. (We've been married for 5 years now and have a 20 month old) So to me it was'nt that unbeliveable. It's just the fact that the woman is a Indian woman, and from the Indian women i know they are much too serious, and much too "pure" to do anything like what was portrayed in the movie. I'm sure that it is not unheard of but it did make it hard to believe.

[Vyuti]

I just caught up with the film in Mumbai and I was impressed by its mature humor; its attempts of going beyond the stereotypical notions of the west about India is indeed commendable. I therefore found the Todd-Asha relationship very interesting and very layered. I think I can completely understand Asha's decision to act upon her crush on Todd because she knows that he is not going to think that she is an 'impure ' woman' for doing so. His respect for her will remain intact, also she knows that a man like Todd will not come back into her life to kiss and tell. She'd probably not do it if he were an Indian unless she is able to establish his openness, liberalism and inherent respect for women.
It is also interesting that more than her, Todd seems to get 'emotional' about the relationship, she on the other hand like most middle-class Indians has an uromanticized pragmatic view of marriage, and increasingly even 'westernised' Indians have begun to see the merit of such an arrangement. I thought Asha is a well wrought out character, representing one dimension of women in contemporary India.
And I agree with you Jefferey Indians are really doing it, with everyone, and have been long before outsourcing or Friends happened to them. :-)

[Alisha Shutler]

I have a slightly different view of male/female relationships as regards Indian cultures. I grew up with an Indian mom and an American father here in the U.S., but I have spent much time in India as well. Needless to say, I grew up with a thorough mix of both Indian and American cultures, and have had to deal with mixed expectations when it comes to my own relationships. I understand the cultural notions that Indians have with regards to sex, and I do agree that many traditional Indian women, if nothing else, keep the affairs of the bed sacred and entirely hush hush. However, sex is not entirely unheard of. I know of at least several instances that have occurred in Bollywood itself involving what is known as the "casting couch," a concept that is frequently known to happen in the Western world. And if some of my Indian girlfriends (here for study from abroad) are any indication, they're not so shy about sex itself, only about the wrong people finding out about it.

My own mother, who had difficulties at first understanding my Americanized views and want for relationships with men, came to an understanding about sex, relationships, and her children when she met my now current live-in partner. Hesitant with the relationship at first, when I spoke to my father about moving in with him, she realized that she was more hurt by the thought that I couldn't speak to her about the relationship than the fact that we would be living together unwed. Although we're unmarried, she now treats my partner as if he were her legal son-in-law. The experience taught me that even traditional Indian women (yes, she and my father did, in fact, have an arranged marriage of sorts) can change their views on sex. And if she can come to grips with modern, Westernized views of sex, I believe that many more Indian women are likely to do so as well. I think it's a shame that the culture who brought the world the Kama Sutra and tantric sex had their views so changed by several cataclysmic events in their history.

I agree on the point that I thought Asha's willingness to jump into bed with Todd was perhaps a little too soon. The romantic tension between them seemed a little undeveloped to me. However, the rest of their story worked for me. I don't find it hard to believe that a proper Indian woman would want to experience sex with a man she truly fancied for herself before her arranged marriage commenced. I think that this movie could, perhaps, open up people's minds to the ideas that Indians themselves are changing. Asha's romance with Todd didn't cheapen her at all - it just made her more human.