THE WHITE TIGER (2021)
 |
| Critic - No. 193 |
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Produced by: Lava Media, ARRAY, Noruz Films
Casts: Adarsh Gourav, Priyanka Chopra, Rajkummar Rao
Language: English, Hindi
Genre: Drama
SYNOPSIS:
An ambitious Indian driver uses his wit to escape from poverty and rise to the top.
REVIEW:
Adapted from the 2008 bestseller and Booker prize winner (by Aravind Adiga), Rahmin Bahrani injects it with terrific storytelling energy in visual form.
The White Tiger is a capitalist fable told from the perspective of Balram (Adarsh Gourav), a poor, lower-caste Bihari hired as a driver for an abroad-returned couple, the film is also a play on the idea of the selfless servant, a trope popularised by Indian pop-culture, in particular Hindi cinema. While in most films, it is shown that domestic workers are thrown into living in an enclosed limbo, The White Tiger penetrates the stereotypical story bubble deeper, revealing that in an unbalanced society, it’s easier to take away options from the oppressed than it is to give them rights.
As a person who has not read the book, I felt that the film was edgy, addressing both the personal conflict of the protagonist and the political standpoint of the country quite well. The characters were quite complete and substantial with Adarsh giving a career-defining performance as Balram, effectively portraying Adiga’s complex feeling about India’s extreme living gap. I loved the scene where he accepts the wrongdoing of his boss with a smile throughout with welled up eyes, torn apart between gratitude and morality. Cinematographer Paolo Carnera and co-editor Tim Streeto aid Bahrani’s vision clearly by taking the viewer back and forth between palatial luxury and devastating poverty through Balram’s layered narration.
Priyanka and Rajkumaar are perfect in their roles while Mahesh Manjekar and Vijay Maurya are just okay in portraying their stock, one-dimensional characters. While the film works well to engage us and also sympathise with Balram’s character, it just doesn’t sync in when we are stuffed with the belief that overthrowing the top is the only way to come up and I feel that is just a shortcut, temporary solution for an everlasting problem. Our engagement in the proceedings in the second half of the film also gets hampered by the repetitive, preachy quotes on the poverty cycle in Balam’s narration, which nearly reaches an ‘overkill’ point. The extended climax to register the film’s ‘message’ is also another sore thumb.
That said, Bahrani gives an absorbing adaptation that is quite universal and entertaining.
VERDICT:
The White Tiger stays true to its source material and offers a thought-provoking drama about the everlasting black hole of class, caste, and poverty in India.
CELLULOID METER- 3.5/5:
Comments
Post a Comment