‘The White Tiger’ presents a searing look at India’s caste system
“The White Tiger” is one of those movies that would likely struggle to claw out much attention without Netflix’s muscle behind it, underscoring the streaming service’s ability to lead people to worthwhile films they might not see in this case, a sobering adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s award-winning book that dissects India’s caste system.
The action unfolds through the eyes of Balram (Adarsh Gourav), who narrates his story beginning in 2007 from the vantagepoint of a newly minted tycoon, writing a letter to the visiting Chinese premier requesting the opportunity to meet with him. The narrative then flashes back, revealing Balram as the “low-born” servant to an imperious and corrupt family, obediently operating as their driver.
Balram (Adarsh Gourav) is a young man struggling to escape poverty in
The White Tiger. Tejinder Singh Khamkha/Netflix
The year 2008 saw the publication of Aravind Adiga s novel
Slumdog Millionaire, two stories about young men escaping poverty and defying the odds against the backdrop of a rapidly globalizing India. But Adiga s novel was a far more cynical and morally unsettling piece of work, with a protagonist who came into his fortune through acts of theft, deception and worse. Now, 12 years later, there s a darkly funny new movie adaptation of
The White Tiger, and it plays even more like the flipside to
The White Tiger: Netflix adaptation of Aravind Adiga s satirical novel is slick, punchy 21st-century rags-to-riches tale
WedWednesday 20
JanJanuary 2021 at 8:21pm
Aravind Adiga dedicated his novel to Iranian-American filmmaker Ramin Bahrani, his friend, who would go on to adapt it for the screen.
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Cancel America is so yesterday, announces ambitious anti-hero Balram (Adarsh Gourav), moments into The White Tiger. In the belief that the future of the world lies with the yellow man and the brown man. I offer to tell you the truth about India, by telling you the story of my life.
So begins director Ramin Bahrani s scathing, often very funny 21st-century rags-to-riches saga, a compressed but compelling adaptation of Aravind Adiga s 2008 Booker Prize-winning bestseller that casts a satirical eye over class, colonialism, and not insignificantly the darker sides of globalisation and Silicon Valley aspiration.
Review: Netflix s The White Tiger is far more than just a bleaker Slumdog Millionaire theglobeandmail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theglobeandmail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.