Made in India
Made in India
| 01 January 2010 (USA)
Made in India Trailers

This eye-opening doc explores the phenomena of "outsourcing" surrogate mothers to India. Weaving together personal stories within a growing international industry, the film reveals the clash of reproductive technology and choice from a global perspective.

Reviews
Bluebell Alcock

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

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Sanjeev Waters

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

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Cody

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

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Caryl

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

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moose-138-499870

This isn't the right place for this question. I wanted to add this question as a FAQ item, but I don't have a mobile anymore and I certainly don't want to give IMDb my credit card (I'm not that stupid), so this question will have to appear in user reviews. Oh well ....Where on earth can you buy this movie ? I cannot find it for sale in the usual places (eBay USA, eBay UK, eBay India, eBay Australia, Amazon, etc, etc, etc), there's no mention of buying or selling the movie in use-net (newsgroups), and even a Google Search on "Made in India" +movie reveals very few "hits", none of them useful for buying the movie. There's not even torrent for it.Don't the makers of this movie want to sell it ? How / where can I buy this movie ?

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evening1

What do you do if you're a couple who can't get pregnant but you don't want to adopt or spend $70,000 to $100,000 for a surrogate? Take a hint from some of the larger corporations these days -- head to the Third World to find a worker who will do it for less.This intriguing film focuses on a well-fed, infertile couple from Texas who travel to India to pick up the twins carried by a surrogate who could not be more unlike them -- a dark, skinny mother-of-three who can neither read nor write nor, to her great embarrassment, find a better way to make a buck. The U.S. couple is told their baby carrier will be paid $7,000 (of an approximately $20,000 tariff) for pulling double duty on child-bearing, but she ends up earning a fraction of that amount -- until she raises a polite stink and cadges a bonus from the pair. (I'd have thought the Americans, who struggled for seven years to have a child on their own, would have been more demonstrative in their thanks. The wife's protestations on this front are a little discomfiting.)This film correctly raises ethical questions about relatively wealthy Westerners seeking to rent womb space from dirt-poor women with few other options for making money.This film leaves one uneasy, and you wonder where it will lead. The queasiness is amplified by a troubling epilogue note. (Bad karma alert?)In all, this was a thought-provoking production.

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Robyn Louie

Made in India (2010)The film begins in San Antonio, Texas, where Lisa Switzer drives the open highways, talking about her seven-year struggle with infertility. As Lisa was forced to have a hysterectomy, surrogacy is her and her husband's only option to have their own child. We learn that even though the Switzers live in an attractive suburban neighbourhood, they cannot afford the $70,000 plus price tag of an American surrogate. So, as has been the way with many a service in the last decade or so, they decide to source their surrogate from India, at a fraction of the cost. The couple travels to Mumbai, where we see the striking difference between India and their homeland. We understand that poverty drives Aasia's choice to become a surrogate when we meet her in her shanty-house. As the story progresses we encounter issues of surrogate rights and informed consent, as Aasia encounters difficulties including stigma, dodging her husband's authority, complications during the pregnancy and a discrepancy in payment. The Switzers must also fight a battle for their parental rights with the hospital since surrogacy laws and regulations remain undefined. The larger issues of women's right to choose, science versus God, and ethics are also touched upon. Haimowitz and Sinha manage to give a fairly objective picture of what outsourcing a surrogate can be like. Their choice to show one couple rather than generalizing the issue makes this objectivity possible. We see the points of view of both the parents and the surrogate. The Switzers look for the positives in the situation, believing that they will get their child and Aasia will get money that can bring her a better life. But this faith is shown as a bit naïve since in actuality the money makes very little difference in Aasia's day-to-day experience. This unsettling realization is compacted by the ending remarks about the growth of this practise into a global industry. One wonders if other surrogates and prospective parents in a similar situation come out as relatively unscathed or whether it is more common to have disappointment on one side or the other. The film is not flashy by any means. Instead it follows a simple documentary style with lots of interviews, a few statistics and a surprising story that unfolds as it happens. The added commentary from industry workers including the Planet Hospital representative, doctors, lawyers, and a women's advocacy group is informative. The presentation of these varying perspectives provokes questions rather than giving all the answers. The viewer will leave the film wondering whether surrogacy of this kind is ethical. How can we better protect the rights of parents and surrogates? Is it appropriate to put a price on life and if so, what should be the sum? Most importantly the viewer's curiosity is piqued to find out more about the outsourcing of surrogates because, if this is what happened with one couple/surrogate, what about all the others?

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