The White Tiger (2021)

The White Tiger (2021)

 

7/10

Starring

Adarsh Gourav

Priyanka Chopra-Jonas

Rajkummar Rao

Directed by Ramin Bahrani

The movie is based on a novel by Aravind Adiga. The screenplay and direction is done by Ramin Bahrani, who did a great job in the adaptation of this book. The movie never makes you think that Balram (played by Adarsh Gourav and the man whom the tale is about) is pure. The movie's dark drama shows how desperate people can be to get away from poverty and the repercussion of treating your servants poorly.

The movie has a wonderful setting, set in 2010 and even though I have never been to India the movie sells the whole drama with its setting. The movie's mind blowing punches of comedy and unexpected situations will keep you glued and never bored. The best way to view this movie is as a more realistic version of Slumdog Millionaire and still as good.

The plot starts with us in Balram’s company he is wealthy from what we see and there is a Chinese investor coming to town, and he decides to send a mail to the man wanting to get his attention. The mail details how he rose to the heights he is now. We can guess that he must have skipped some of the dark things that he did in this mail.

Balram was one of the few children who could read in his class, but he could not do much with that as he lost his father to tuberculosis and was forced to do all sort of menial jobs to get by and also care for his family. No matter how much they worked, the poverty to which they were born into was never lifting. In fact it seems things were getting more pathetic as the young boy with potential we saw in the beginning of the film, is now a man who cleans floors and is all dressed in rags.

Balram decided to change his life and to do that he must serve someone who already has it made. The tyrant and wealthy man in his town has a son who just fly back to India with his wife. He went to learn how to drive and praticularly threw himself at the family to serve. They took advantage of his willingness and Balram got a better chance in life. His boss was now the son Ashok, Ashok and his wife treated Balram with a little more dignity than the other people in the house. Soon Balram was coerced to stand for a crime which he was innocent of. Even though he was not charged in the end by the police, he realized that he will never get to be better than a servant to these people. So he changed, he started to lie, steal, cheat and do everything possible to leave servant-hood and be his own boss someday.

The movie is worth your time and if is fun to see and easy to enjoy.