The White Tiger
Contemporary images of India are comparatively rare in Western movies and TV. “Slumdog Millionaire” aside, it seems there’s far more interest in the India of the colonial and immediate post-colonial era, when the weight of the British Empire still hung heavily like the subcontinent’s famous Hope diamond.
The likes of “The Jewel in the Crown,” “A Passage to India” and the recent “A Suitable Boy” convey the idea of a country in aspic, forever trapped in a “Masterpiece Theater”-themed 20th century it can’t escape.
So when director/writer Ramin Bahrani’s Delhi and Bangalore-set “The White Tiger” ★★★½
Quick take: A side of India you may not have seen before Where to see it: Currently in theaters; begins streaming Jan. 22 on Netflix opens in 2007 — swinging to the booming rhythm of Panjabi MC featuring Jay-z’s global bhangra/ hip-hop hit “Beware of the Boys” — it’s a revelation. “Gandhi” it’s not.
There might be at least one similarity. Balram (Adarsh Gourav), a clever young man raised in poverty, bent on bettering the lives of poor people like himself. But hunger strikes and wraparound cloths are not quite his style.
Instead, Balram has gotten himself a job as a driver and all-around flunky for Ashok (Rajkummar Rao), a rich kid and wanna-be tech bro who has been living in New York for some time. He’s back in India with thoughts of reconnecting with his thuggish dad and getting involved in the local economy, though his stylish wife, Pinky (Priyanka Chopra, “Quantico”), wants to get back to NYC ASAP.
They are the three people in a car listening to Panjabi MC, speeding along a dark road and swerving like high schoolers on a joyride, as Balram begins narrating his tale of rags to something resembling riches. He’s actually telling his story in the form of an email written to the Chinese prime minister who’s coming to Bangalore to meet with tech executives.
“I know you Chinese are great lovers of freedom and individual liberty,” writes Balram, tongue decidedly firmly in cheek. “The British tried to make you their servants but you never let them. I admire that, Mr. Premier … I think we can agree that America is so yesterday. India and China are tomorrow.”
Based on Aravind Adiga’s 2008 bestseller, “The White Tiger” is a smart, bleakly funny and sometimes horrifying look at what one man will do to scale the rungs of the social ladder. That it also attempts to show the complexities of modern India just adds to its pleasures.
Gourav, in his first major feature role, slyly conveys Balram’s dual nature — innocent, wide-eyed and charmingly toadying one minute, cunning, calculating and coldhearted the next. Rao is especially notable as a silver-spoon scion who thinks he has his world figured out … until he doesn’t.
Bahrani made one of the best films of 2014 in “99 Homes,” a heartbreaking drama set during the blizzard of foreclosures that followed the 2008 financial crash. He stumbled with his 2018 remake of “Fahrenheit 451” but he’s back on solid ground with “The White Tiger.”
Let’s see more modern India, please.
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