The white tiger is the exciting new film by Indian director Ramin Bahrani, which has garnered praise for Goodbye solo, Chop Shop and 99 homes, but did not like the huge platform that Netflix now offers him. Bahrani’s partnership with the world’s greatest streamer makes sense, especially for this project – it’s an international cross-story set in India, a growing target for Netflix content and based on the critically acclaimed novel by Australian-Indian author Aravind Adiga. Now i can say The white tiger rules, rocks and rocks without sounding mushy? Maybe not – but here’s the reasoning behind my enthusiasm.
The Gist: Balram (Adarsh Gourav) is sitting in the back seat of an SUV. For some reason, he is wearing a Maharaji costume. For good reason, he’s freaking out, because the vehicle is going too fast. Pinky Madam (Priyanka Chopra) is behind the wheel, probably drunk, and is yelling at Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) in the passenger seat. It’s dark. They fly by what appear to be homeless people on the side of the road. They barely dodge a cow. A person’s shape runs in front of the vehicle and Balram screams. Cut. That was several years ago. Balram narrates. It’s his story. We will get the SUV almost out of control soon; that’s how he got there, a servant prostrating himself in front of rich people for a petty salary, possibly in a miserable situation, because without such a big drama, this may not be the fascinating film it is.
We see Balram in an elegant block, the ends of his mustache exquisitely waxed in small curls, jewels adorning his fingers and wrists. “The Indian businessman has to be honest and dishonest,” he says, narrating a letter he writes to Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. Balram works in Bangalore, the Indian version of Silicon Valley. “America is so yesterday,” he jokes, and those of us who are uncomfortable Americans have to agree. His life was not always like this: “We should start”, he says with a sparkle in the eyes of the voice, “kissing the foot of some god”. Hindu, Christian, Muslim, whatever it is, it probably doesn’t matter. He grew up in the dusty village of Laxmangarh, under the domination of his overbearing grandmother (Kamlesh Gill). His father was beaten and died of tuberculosis. There is no mention of your mother. Teenager Balram is sitting on the ground, hitting the rocks with a hammer, under Grandma’s orders. Why, I’m not sure, maybe I lost, maybe it doesn’t matter, but the useless metaphor is what matters. He hits rocks.
Balram tells about how so many Indian men are roosters trapped in a cage, but he learned how to escape it. He grew up without electricity and without a bathroom, without even knowing what the internet is. Every once in a while, the city’s wealthy landlord comes to shake everyone up to pay rent, or “taxes”, or whatever you want to call the rich, cruelly oppressing the poor, forced by a man known as the Mongoose (Vijay Maurya). Balram hears the need for a driver’s owner, so he borrows money from Grandma for driving lessons, promising to pay her and a little more so she’ll agree to that when he gets the job. What he does, seriously and naively playing his role as a lower-caste Indian citizen, born to be a servant of the rich. He was assigned to be the driver of the owner’s son, Ashok, who returned home to India after several years in America, where he met and married Pinky. Balram leads Ashok to several heads of state on a bribery tour, so the family can avoid taxation. Sometimes Ashok is like Balram’s friend. They play tennis or video games together. At other times, he is abusive and degrading. Ashok slaps Balram and swears. Eventually, we reached the SUV at high speed, which becomes a turning point in Balram’s history. “My story gets a lot darker from here,” he says. And it’s true. I will vouch for him.
Which movies will you remember ?: Balram side eyes Slumdog Millionaire stating that his life does not change by earning a million rupees on a TV show. The white tiger also scans the black comedy to divide classes, as Parasite does, and I do not make the comparison lightly.
Performance worth watching: Watch this movie and you will want to take Gourav to the front of the Oscar race. His performance is lively, witty, funny, friendly, scary and many other things. More importantly, he is completely convincing in his portrait of a man slowly boiling, transforming from a naive idiot into a cunning businessman, from an anonymous member of the servants’ class to an individual in charge of his destiny.
Memorable dialogue: From a peasant’s mouth: “If I were responsible for India, I would take the sewer pipes first, So democracy ”, says Balram.
Sex and skin: A brief scene that means nothing, really.
Our opinion: The Coen brothers once described the direction as “tone management” and The white tiger engrave that statement in stone. The film is an extraordinary collaboration between Bahrani – who also wrote the script – and his cast, who reached the sweetest point between lively comedy, bold drama and incisive social commentary. It is an amazing and unlikely marriage of cynicism and hope. He spits acid satire. He struggles with class, faith, morality. It makes our eyes go wide. It makes us laugh out loud.
It also almost tempts us to believe that the murder is justified. This is a sneaky bastard, this film.
Crucially, it tells us how it’s going to end through a bookend flashback structure, and still manages to subvert our expectations and deliver some elusive knockout blows – and punches – in the final moments. This is not just another saga of a humble man who breaks evil; offers a refreshing angle in the formula, supported by Bahrani’s lively and confident direction. You will pull up a chair to observe and, after two thirds, you will look down and realize that you are sitting on a powder keg. And this is because Gourav is so captivating as a naive who finds the courage and the means – however ugly, frightening and morally compromising they may be – to rage against a machine that has landed its species for a long, long time, to prove that destroying the The caste system in India is not about taking part in some difficult-to-pray question and prayer show, a stupid pollyanna.
Our call: Chain The white tigerand then STREAM IT again.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more about his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.
Chain The white tiger on Netflix