The White Tiger film review (spoiler free)

The White Tiger (2021) - Aravind Adiga's mind-blowing, Man Booker Prize winning novel adapted into a film.

 

image credits: Netflix

The White Tiger is available to watch on NETFLIX

Direction & Screenplay: Ramin Bahrani

Starring: Adarsh Gourav, Rajkummar Rao, Priyanka Chopra

Cinematography: Paolo Carnera

 

(There is a special and personal note at the end of this review.)

The White Tiger makes you aware of the mental bondages that manifests into physical traps. Through age we become so habitual of these traps that we fail to realize, that we are ones who have birthed them. We see these traps, label them as our fate, and continue with the labour of striving through them, meanwhile summing it all up near our deathbed as 'life'.

Story: The story deals with the old archetype of class divide. The servant versus the master. The oppressor versus the oppressed. The one weird, keen-eyed servant who finds the teachings of the 'rich dad' in his wealthy oppressors and abandons the teachings of the 'poor dad' from his past. The underdog outshining the millions stuck in the rooster coop (the cage where chickens are kept in a butcher shop) of poverty. The only catch is that there is a huge moral penalty he has to pay to access that freedom.

"99.9% of us are caught in the rooster coop. The trustworthiness of servants is so strong that you can put the key of emancipation in a man's hand and he will throw it back at you with a curse." Balram's dialogue states.

The prime character of the film – the underdog – is Balram. His fear and adaptability is driven with a natural element when it comes to the aspirations to please the ultra riches and ultimately become one; and also towards his blood/wealth sucking grandmother.

Throughout the film, the viewer not only experiences Balram's state of mind and events, but simultaneously wonders about the chains of his/her own mind.

Acting: Balram isn't a meak person. He is cunning, and most importantly, adaptable. After all, this world is but the survival of the most adaptable. Adarsh Gourav (who plays Balram) puts on a fake smile or a demeanour of a concerned servant, just when the situation demands of him. Balram is aware of such nuances, which earn him trust and occasionally, money.  

Adarsh is fully immersed in the role throughout the length of the film. His exchange of energy towards the other characters of the story paves a solid path for Balram’s character arc.

Balram's state of poverty or riches is felt real by the viewers, and that shows Adarsh’s commitment towards the role. I believe that in his heart of heart, Aravind Adiga - the author of the novel, The White Tiger, would have felt the bliss of seeing an actor give justice to his dynamic character. This was a National Award winning acting.

The roles of the married couple - Rajkummar Rao (as Ashok) and Priyanka Chopra (as Pinky) were tricky. I say this because, they weren't just supporting roles. They had to be affectionate with Balram, be his mentors in a way, and push his boundaries, meanwhile, not share the amount of screentime as the lead character. Despite this limitation, both the actors make the most of the time they get on screen. 

They form such strong pillars in Balram's character journey, that I find these performances to be Rajkummar and Priyanka's career best. No, they do not go into all the elements of drama which they have ventured in their other feature films portraying lead roles, but here they bring all those past experiences into limited screentime and enhance the rasa (sanskrit, for essence or taste) of the story. They do not make the film about them, but about what they bring to Balram's story and overall film in general. I regard this as dedication to acting, and not establishing a 'star' presence.

Even the limited time roles of the chief upper class oppressors played by Mahesh Manjrekar and Vijay Maurya, were true to the core of their description in the novel. As a viewer, you will find yourself hating them. In my little experience, I can safely say that the performances of these two actors are what theatre actors aim to be able to show to their audience. Concise roles, powerful acting.

 

A scene I photographed during my evening walks in Almora. Resemblance with Balram's will to conquer life.

Direction: What could we expect from a director who is making a brilliantly written novel into a film? That he do not present the story as it is in the novel, but give it his own rendition as suitable with the audio-visual medium of cinema. Director Ramin Bahrani does exactly that. He presents the sequence of events surrounding Balram's village in quick montages. These could have been slowed down, but the bliss of reading those events in the Novel is far beyond any screen-time, and I assume the director was aware of that. 

He instead gives more breathing space to the scenes leading to Balram's learning of rich life and his breakthrough. For a director adapting a novel to a film, the understanding of the difference and uniqueness between textual and audio-video medium is a must, and Ramin knows that.

There must be a reason(s) that Aravind Adiga dedicated the novel to this director, and after watching the film, I can sense it.

Screenwriting & other elements: Direction and acting lasted with a heavier presence than the screenwriting. Nonetheless, the latter did have occasional intense punches, like that of the dialogues in the novel. 

An instance being, where Balram brushes his teeth hard with the aim of cleansing his paan-masala induced stained teeth along with the dirty smudge of poverty from his being. He spits out the toothpaste and wonders, "if only a man could spit his past out so easily."

Cinematography doesn't play around much with the vibgyor of lights; rather keeps the angles and blocking focussed on Balram. For a servant after all, the lights are accessories and not prominent than the struggle to live. After all, it is the safe and comfortable who rejoice in intense artificial lights. 

The frames added deeper visual meanings to Balram’s state of being. At times, too close to his face, making us see his ability to hide his pain behind a smile. At times, pinning him down as a tiny, worthless and lonely figure against the vast skyscrapers of those who cause him pain.

Production design accentuate the cinematography. The grandeur of the masters' royal beddings form a stark contrast with Balram's withered village home, where the travesty of daily earnings lets you forget the need of a mattress.

There was a minimal approach kept for the sound design. Only added layers to specific scenes and gave a helping hand to the editing.

Final remarks: I think of this Film Companion interview of filmmaker Santosh Sivan, where upon telling his photojournalist father about an interest in photography during his childhood, his father would make him dust the photographs of Gandhi hung on the walls. Then weeks later, he would ask the qualities and meanings in those photographs worth remembering. The dusting was a guise, like a sly act of a Guru, meanwhile examining whether the child is earnestly interested about the art.

Balram had a learning experience through his masters' lives. Though here, the intention of the masters wasn't like that of the Guru. In this world, Balram had to uncover the guise himself and seek out the teachings.

Watching this movie, brought the memories of the time I used to listen to this song called 'Break On Through (to the other side)' by The Doors. Those were the days of fanboying the collective works of the band. I wish there was, at least a trailer using this song as the backdrop music.

Special Note: A couple of years ago, on a grey rainy day, I got an urge to write a poem on servant, which I had later published. Adding the original poem here, since it seems to compliment the movie well.

 

Servant

by Aashwin Joshi

 

Children of men burn

with a fire of safety,

I blaze with servitude;

Poverty, my gasoline.

 

Masters hail me a worker

But mirror cracks my image

to a broken being called servant.

I wear their money

like charitable apparel,

Under the nocturnal roof of riches.

 

Pre sleep meditation

tickles a homely bone when

rain drops do not kiss my cheek,

Under the concrete roof of city.

 

I feel not homely

at my master's home,

Home is an evaporated hope,

City men spit at my village.

 

Soft hands have toughened

and softer hands turned softest

I became a man unlike my master's son.

 

Idle since my arrival

That idol can depart his son,

If I bathe him in blood

will I escape with a godly fate like Him?

 

Hands join to work or pray

Father deemed life as such,

My son hugs his shadow alone in a room.

CLICK HERE to watch the TRAILER of The White Tiger