Movie Review - The White Tiger (2021)

Aravind Adiga is an author from India whose 2008 debut novel won the Man Booker Prize, a literary award for works published in the United Kingdom. Several films have been made based on Man Booker Prize winners, such as Schindler's List (1993) and The English Patient (1996). One such film was Life of Pi (2012), which was about an Indian man who looks back on his life and tells the story of a harrowing incident of survival, involving himself and a large, ferocious cat. Adiga's book has some similarities in that it's also about an Indian man who is looking back on his life and tells the story of a harrowing incident where ultimately a large, ferocious cat is referenced.

This film though isn't an action-adventure. It's a crime drama where two social classes are pitted against each other. It involves a person in a lower social class, namely the impoverished class, doing all that he can to climb into a higher social class, namely the wealthy class. It's about the powerless trying to become powerful, the have-not trying to become a have. In this case, it's about a servant trying to become a master, an employee trying to become an owner. Because of their being some elements of manipulation and impersonation, where the conflict incorporates the poverty class using the wealthy class in perhaps deceitful ways, some might see this film as Slumdog Millionaire (2008) meets Parasite (2019).

Adarsh Gourav stars as Balram Halwai, a young man born and raised in a poor village in India that doesn't have access to running water or electricity. He doesn't have access to other things like toiletries to keep himself all that clean. He may have bathed in the river, but he's never really been able to brush his teeth for example. He and his family don't really have access to medicines, which is why his father got sick and died at a relatively young age. Education and literacy aren't really big here, but Balram is one of the smartest young people in the area in that he studies and secretly reads.

There are still things that he doesn't know. Yet, Balram has a curiosity and hunger that compels him to want more than just staying in his poor village like his family members. He sees an opportunity to do so when a wealthy landlord and his son come to town. Balram becomes enamored with the wealthy man's son. Balram decides to get a job with the wealthy man's son by becoming his chauffeur. He then hopes to ingratiate himself and even emulate the wealthy man's son in the vein of The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).

Rajkummar Rao co-stars as Ashok, the aforementioned, wealthy man's son. He's a very privileged young guy but he's not as snobbish or even as abusive as others who really look down on poor people like Balram. Ashok doesn't mistreat Balram and Ashok even starts to befriend Balram. If this film were The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ashok would be the character played by Jude Law. Yet, this film doesn't have nearly the level of homoeroticism. There are homosocial sequences with tension that could lean toward lustful, but instead of the sexy gazes at a naked Jude Law, we get not even a glimpse of Rao's skin below his neck.

Writer-director Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop and Man Push Cart) might want to distinguish his film from that 1999 classic. That 1999 work wanted that sexual tension in order to emphasize the crime of passion and insane act depicted. Here, Bahrani's film doesn't want what's ultimately depicted to be a crime of passion or seen as an insane act based on some underlining or repressed homosexuality because that's become cliché and quite offensive in media nowadays. No, Bahrani's film wanted what's depicted here to be seen as not about sex but about social class, and as an absolute act of premeditation and planning. If you want to see a film that is set in the same country and has a similar plot and themes, but that is about sex, check out Michael Winterbottom's Trishna (2012).

Priyanka Chopra (Isn't It Romantic and Baywatch) rounds out the cast as Pinky, the wife to Ashok who was born in India but was raised in the United States, specifically New York City. She is clearly the most Americanized of all the Indian people, a step above Ashok himself who is a bit Americanized himself but not to the extent that Pinky is. He at least wants to stay in India. Pinky does not. She loves her home country but she's the most critical of the customs and traditions like the caste system, which she cites as bigoted and abusive.

When a line is drawn that makes it clear how the caste system treats impoverished people or people in the lower class, it shows the schism between Pinky and Ashok, as well as the schism between Balram and everyone else. It shows how people will do anything to hold onto their wealth and privilege. The question becomes if Balram is willing and able to do the same in order to even get that wealth and privilege. Gourav's performance is incredible through it all as he narrates and even breaks the fourth wall in a way that is akin to Ray Liotta's performance in Goodfellas (1990). Bahrani's direction might not be as flashy or slick as Martin Scorsese's but he does turn in what is his best work in over a decade.

Rated R for language, violence and sexual material.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 7 mins.

Available on Netflix.