DRIVEN TO SUCCESS (THE WHITE TIGER)

 

The 2008 Booker Prize winning 'The White Tiger' is regarded as one of the finest novels ever written about India.

A thrilling contemporary tale about the class system, globalisation, individualism and corruption, a screen version of Aravind Adinga's Booker Prize winning novel was in the works even before it made it to print.

Such was the interest that the Mumbai-based film producer, musician and entrepreneur Mukul Deora snapped up the rights before publication.

And it soon became a labour of love for his college friend, the Iranian American director Ramin Bahraini who has been mapping out a screen version, ever since he read early drafts of Adinga's story.

Bahraini is probably best known for his 2014 Florida real estate foreclosure drama '99 Homes' with Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon.

But film buffs may also know his 2007 drama 'Chop Shop' about a street orphan living in Queens in New York, which the critic Roger Ebert claimed was one of the best films of the first decade of the 2000s.

Bahraini's version of 'The White Tiger' finds him at his most daring, gambling on a Bollywood cast with little profile outside India.

26-year-old actor Adarsh Gourav eagerly grasps the opportunity to become a star outside India with a charismatic performance as the narrator and lead character, Balram Halwai, a poor boy who over the course of the movie becomes a successful entrepreneur by hook or by crook.

At the start of the film, Balram writes a letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in the hope of meeting him during a 2010 state visit to India.

The letter Balram writes is essentially his life story and inevitably turns into a confession about the ruthless decisions he had to make to break out of poverty.

However Balram's tale is also an excoriating critique of the caste system and the way it suppresses those who have real talent to offer.

At the start of 'The White Tiger,' we see Balram as a young boy, played by Harshit Mahawar, in the village school in Laxmanghar in the Sikar District of Rajasthan.

As the other pupils struggle to read English, Balram flies through the challenge and is offered a scholarship in a school in Delhi by an inspector who tells him he is a "white tiger" - a once in a generation talent.

However his father is in debt to the local village landlord, Mahesh Manjrekar's The Stork.

The scholarship is spurned after Balram is pulled out of school by his granny, played by Kamlesh Gill - a formidable Matriarch who calls the shots in the family.

Balram and his brother earn money instead for the family after she secures them jobs in a local tea shop.

One day, as a young man, Balram spots The Stork arriving in the village with his sons, the thuggish Mongoose, played by Vijay Maurya, and the suave Ashok, played by Rajkummar Rao.

Realising they are looking for a driver, he sweet talks his Granny into allowing him to raid her savings for driving lessons.

However she agrees on the basis that if he lands the job with The Stork, he will send back all his earnings to the family.

Believing working for Ashok offers a route out of the village and extreme poverty, Balram manages to persuade The Stork to hire him as his son's driver.

It isn't long before he is driving for Ashok and his New York-raised wife Pinky, played by Priyanka Chopra, ferrying them around Delhi.

Ashok has been dispatched to Delhi to court Opposition politicians afyer a local politician in their region, Swaroot Samprat's The Great Socialist extorts money from his family.

While Ashok and Pinky live in luxury in an apartment block, Balram has a sparse, dusty room instead with a mattress in an underground car park.

The other drivers for wealthy residents in the block also live there, with Nalneesh Neel's Vitiligo giving him the nickname "Country Mouse".

When they do not pass the time playing cards, Balram is the butt of their jokes.

However Balram doesn't complain and he just goes about his business, enjoying a warm relationship with Ashok and Pinky than he does with The Stork and the Mongoose who treat him like dirt.

One night on Pinky's birthday, she and Ashok get drunk and force Balram to let them drive the car with him in the passenger seat.

This culminates in a terrible tragedy and with the family anticipating a police investigation, they put pressure on Balram to shoulder the blame.

From then on, Bahraini's film focuses on how Balram plots his way out of his servitude to Ashok and his famy.

The film quickly becomes a tale of ruthless ambition, with Balram knowing that he must escape but also that any betrayal of his masters could have catastrophic consequences for his relatives in his home village.

'The White Tiger' develops into gripping account of the rise of an Indian entrepreneur as Bahraini brews an intoxicating mix of Indian mysticism and capitalist ethics, ruthless ambition and betrayal.

With its vibrant images and brilliantly constructed narrative, viewers will be reminded of the vibrant work of Danny Boyle - not just his 2008 Oscar winning film 'Slumdog Millionaire' but his 1996 Edinburgh drug addict classic 'Trainspotting'.

There are shades of Bong Joon-Ho's 'Parasite' in there as well, with its fierce examination of the ruthlessness needed to break out of the barriers imposed by India's rigid class system.

Thrillingly shot by Italian cinematographer Paolo Carnera and dazzlingly edited by Tim Streeto, Bahraini uses freeze frames, time shifts and Balram's engaging voiceover to weave a thrilling tale.

But he also does this with a real sense of mischief, with Balram even taking a cheeky swipe at 'Slumdog Millionaire'.

A lot falls on the shoulders of Gourav who turns in an energetic lead performance that is reminiscent of Ewan McGregor's knowing anti-hero turn as Renton in 'Trainspotting'.

As Balram plots his way out of poverty and servitude, we know it will involve a huge act of betrayal but we give him latitude because there is also a clear streak of a conscience.

A huge part of the joy of watching Bahraini's film is how Gourav willingly embraces the chance to be the anti-hero.

Like McGregor's Renton, there is a sense that Balram is going about his business with a nod and a wink.

A movie as energising as this also requires the rest of the cast to be on top of their game as well and they do not disappoint.

Rao does a smart job as Ashok, gradually chiseling away at the suave persona.

Priyanka Chopra also impresses as Pinky whose joie de vivre quickly dissolves after the tragedy 

Vijay Maurya is very menacing as The Mongoose, while Mahesh Manjrekar is suitably arrogant as The Stork.

Kamlesh Gill amuses as Balram's granny, while Nalneesh Neel grabs some attention as the sly driver Vitiligo.

All of this makes for an intoxicating brew that deserves a lot more attention than it is currently getting.

As we head into awards season, it will be a travesty if 'The White Tiger' is ignored in favour of the hugely overrated 'Mank' and the much more wordy and much less cinematic 'The Trial of the Chicago Seven' -as many pundits appear to be suggesting.

Gourav surwlu earns his right to be a serious contender in the Best Actor category at all the awards. 

Bahraini too delivers an adaptation that is so perfectly executed, it should be contending for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Paolo Carnera and Tim Streeto too have strong claims for making the Cinematography and Film Editing shortlists.

In normal circumstances, I would probably be lamenting the fact Bahraini's film has been relegated to a Netflix release as it clearly belongs on the big screen.

However in the Covid age, Netflix will have to do.

Nevertheless it would be interesting to see it on the cinema screen.

A fascinating insight into contemporary India, 'The White Tiger' sets a high bar for other movies in 2021.

See it. It's excellent. Spread the word.

('The White Tiger' received a limited US cinema release on January 13, 2021 and was made available for streaming on Netflix on January 22, 2021)

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