THE WHITE TIGER | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Ramin Bahrani (15, 125 mins)
Based on the Booker prize-winning novel by Aravind Adiga, this urgent examination on inequality and aspiration in India is superbly brought to the screen by Ramin Bahrani. Adarsh Gourav stars as Balram, a young man who wants to escape the poverty and exploitation of his home life. In his youth he had been compared to the rare white tiger, due to his academic excellence, but when his schooling had to be abandoned he instead worked in a tea shop, creating sweet treats to make money for his brutal landlord. His father was worked into an early grave; his older brother, known as The Mongoose, is married off, trapped in a web of poverty and servility that can never be escaped, but Balram wants to learn to drive and serve his landlord’s youngest son Ashok in the city.
Ashok, played by Rajkummar Rao, is more liberal than Balram’s wealthy father and sadistic older brother, and has returned from America with an Indian-American wife – Pinky, played by Priyanka Chopra. Balram sees an opportunity here to serve this more tolerant master with his questioning wife, and ingratiates himself into becoming his driver via guile and flattery. He ends up living in a garage basement below Ashok and Pinky’s luxury Delhi apartment, the couple’s tolerance of him varying on mood until a tragic accident thrusts all the relationships, and the power structure, into sharp relief.
Gourav is superb as Balram, eager to please his social superiors whilst dealing with his own self-loathing, his desire for betterment and his hatred of India’s caste structures. He wants a fat belly – like his corrupt, wealthy landlord – but the price he and his family could pay is high. There are occasional clunky moments of exposition and direct addresses to camera, but these are overshadowed by the Dickensian verve of the storytelling. A worthy cinematic adaptation of a superb book.
Released on Netflix on Fri 22 Jan
words KEIRON SELF