Forget Bollywood, it is India as a whole that seems to be under a spotlight at the ongoing 31st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). At least three TIFF films from three different countries explore the world's largest democracy from economic, social and cultural angles.

American director John Jeffcoat's "Outsourced", British documentary filmmaker Liz Mermin's "Office Tigers" and French master Benoit Jacquot's "L'Untouchable" touch upon crucial aspects of the country with sympathy and insight.

"Outsourced", featuring Josh Hamilton, Ayesha Dharker and Asif Basra, is a culture-clash film set against the backdrop of the thriving BPO business. Hamilton is Todd, an American who arrives in India to train his replacement when his Seattle-based company decides to outsource its call centre operations.

Although much of the action takes place in a makeshift office setting, director Jeffcoat, who is currently working on a feature-length documentary on Bollywood, opens out the narrative to take in the personal and social issues that are bound to crop up when two cultures collide.

He blends tongue-in-cheek incredulity with sustained emotional honesty to craft a film that skilfully evades the pitfalls that come bundled with the genre.

Lead actor Hamilton etches out a thoroughly believable portrait of a man who dares to give in to India, while Dharker, one of the office girls who captures the hero's imagination, is luminously natural, delivering a performance of outstanding quality.

Mermin's "Office Tigers" is a documentary and, therefore, cast in a completely different mould. It homes in on the work of a Chennai firm Office Tiger, which services some of the world's biggest investment banks.

Like the fictional "Outsourced", "Office Tigers" benefits from the fact that it is emotionally clued in to the aspirations of the people it puts under the microscope.

"Office Tigers" touches upon the central debate that is raging over outsourcing, but the film also delves into that one crucial question: is it really necessary for Indian workers to mutate into American souls and voices just to be able to deal with their jobs?

The jury, of course, is still out and "Office Tigers" does not commit the mistake of suggesting otherwise.

Half of Benoit Jacquot's road movie "L'Untouchable", a vehicle for the beautiful young French actress Isild Le Besco, is set in Varanasi, but it steers clear of the motifs and images that inevitably creep into films of this genre.

On her birthday, a young French actress learns from her mother that she is an illegitimate child and her father is really a low-caste Hindu. The girl sets off for India and Jacquot uses a documentary-style, almost naturalistic approach to record her encounters with the teeming country.

The camera weaves its way through railway platforms, crowded train compartments, the hustle and bustle of the streets, the chaotic traffic and the burning ghats of Varanasi without ever seeming to be gloating over the scenes of chaos and squalor.

"L'Untouchable" presents a touching and nuanced, if a tad slight, view of a world that is as far away from France as any world can be.