Paolo Carnera’s sharply affecting camerawork, riveting performances from the main cast and powerfully evocative direction catapults this film to a notch above the commonplace.
The White Tiger
First-generation Iranian American Ramin Bahrani writes and directs this cinema adaptation of Indian author Aravind Adiga’s 2008 Booker Prize-winning novel, (also a New York Times Bestseller) - which basically analyses and underlines the struggle of the global underclass.
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Adiga’s “The White Tiger” is a sort of grittier, far more realistic ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ meets ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ where the have-not, sparked by injustice, reaches out for success. This telling of it opens with protagonist Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav as the adult version and Harshit Mahawar as the child) narrating his life story as part of a letter to a Chinese Premier, who is visiting India. It’s a story-telling device that inter-mingles geo-politics with personal success while crisscrossing from 2000 to 2010.
Balram, now a successful entrepreneur, grew up in rural Laxmangarh and was taken out of school by his autocratic grandmother who wanted him to work at the family tea shop. His father died of tuberculosis and his brother was forced into the responsibility of getting married and keeping the family genealogy going. One day Balram overhears that a rich landlord Stork (Mahesh Manjrekar) was seeking a driver for his America returned Son Ashok (Rajkumar Rao). Balram grabs the opportunity (convinces his recalcitrant grandmother to give him the money for driving lessons), is hired and moves into the Stork’s family home in Delhi. Once there he is abjectly servile behaving like indentured labourer while building up a resentment that ends up in an inciting incident. Bahrani’s narrative like in Adiga's novel weaves class and caste iniquities into a winning statement of the human condition – where the struggle for success is underlined by murky morality.
An accident where Balram was a mere spectator, forces him to change his views on his position in life. Luckily for him, his path to economic glory from a servile servant into a self-made businessman came at a time when India was booming with economic growth.
Bahrani’s narrative diligently follows Adiga’s novel while highlighting Balram’s eventful tryst with destiny. Ashok and his wife Pinky (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) seem different from the rest of the family in the way they treat Balram but their expectations from him are no less belittling and disrespectful. They try to bridge the gap by being compassionate, encouraging Balram to set higher goals but invariably, their efforts come across as condescending and not so nice. Bahrani, like in Adiga’s novel is making an inalienable statement by using uncomfortable black humour to lay emphasis on the disparity between Balram and the couple. Lead actor Adarsh Gourav gives vent to his talents in accentuating the frustrations and rigours of poverty, gradually hardening before our eyes into a destructive fury. Bahrani focuses his anger thru Balram on the inequities of life while shadowing the struggles and tribulations of those trying to break out. He depicts Balram’s struggle with harshness that leaves behind an acidic aftertaste. Paolo Carnera’s sharply affecting camerawork, riveting performances from the main cast and powerfully evocative direction catapults this film to a notch above the commonplace.
The White Tiger
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Cast: Adarsh Gourav, Rajkummar Rao, Priyanka Chopra, Mahesh Manjrekar, Vijay Maurya, Mahesh Pillai, Nalneesh Neel, Aaron Wan
Rating: * & 1/2
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