India exposure in film and television has had a variety of different portrayals that are either somewhat accurate or just Hollywoodization as fiction. It’s either the fantastical magic in any of the movie adaptations of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1905 novel A Little Princess (but primarily Alfonso Cuaron’s 1995 version) or the whimsical optimism of Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008) or the realistic drama of Garth Davis’ Lion (2016).
One thing that appears to be consistent in screen interpretations of the continent: poverty sucks, but poverty really sucks in India. Ramin Bahrani’s The White Tiger, based on Aravind Adiga’s 2008 novel with the same title, is a bluntly honest portrayal of lower class vs high class with some grittiness thrown in.
In 2007 Delhi, idealistic Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav) longs to rise from his family’s oppression and believes the way to freedom is to work within the upper class community in the city. Without much education and not even knowledge of how to use modern technology, Balram convinces one of the wealthiest families in the area to hire him as a driver. Things go surprisingly well between the young chauffeur, the family’s entrepreneur son Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and his new, pretty Indian-American wife Pinky (Priyanka Chopra), quickly forming a friendship. Balram is led to believe the couple are more progressive and open-minded about treating all classes with respect compared to Ashok’s corrupt father and his posse. But then an unexpected car accident turns everything on its head.
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The White Tiger is one of those rare movies where I went in with barely any idea of what it was about, without watching the trailer or reading very much on the plot. The story takes a stark, bait-and-switch tone once we reach the car accident that I wasn’t expecting, to the point where I was almost disappointed to leave behind the (albeit naïve) ambitious atmosphere of the first half of the film. Instead the mood just keeps getting darker and bleaker as it goes along. The potentially realistic view of the class system in the Eastern world is stalled by the dramatic narrative and holds the film’s quality back a bit. Still, Bahrami knows how to portray social injustice on film, already familiar with the subject in his 99 Homes (2014), and at least visually shows how shady and questionable the system can be. Gourav does a solid job as our lead and narrator, as does Rao in the supporting role, and it’s nice to see Chopra in India on screen again.
The White Tiger is a mixed bag, but in a way, a good example of an easy pick for a stay-at-home night with Netflix.
Have you seen The White Tiger yet? What did you think of the plot twists? Let us know in the comments!
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