Netflix’s The White Tiger – India’s Wolf of Wall Street

Netflix knows its audience and caters to their background noise needs with many VOD-style movies and TV series to fill that void. However, they have been branching out by bringing in high profile directors and producers to create content that rivals huge production companies, even being nominated for all types of awards. The White Tiger, adapted from a New York Times bestseller and 2008 Man Booker Prize winner, hopes to be the latter.

Directed by Ramin Bahrani, The White Tiger follows the story of Balram Halwai (Gourav), a low caste Indian citizen who pulls himself up through adversity from the life of a poor villager to a successful entrepreneur. This story is told through his perspectives before, during and after his big break where he was able to secure a job as driver and servant to his village’s high caste landlords: Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and his Americanized wife Pinky (Chopra Jonas). As the story unfolds, corruption comes through and the social divide becomes more apparent as Balram will do anything to please his master only to make sure he isn’t thrown back to where he came from.

From the outset of this film, it’s easy to tell what style it is going to take on. Yes, it may have the same atmosphere and real-world look at the full spectrum of India’s social class system which bears similarities to Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, but it purposely pushes away from those similarities even as far as making a quick witted comment about it.

Instead, The White Tiger uses a narration-heavy approach to its storytelling bearing more resemblance to The Wolf of Wall Street or Life of Pi. As it unfolds, the similarities to the former continue to grow. Balram’s specific journey is not a common one, but the general concepts show the determination and desperation of someone who yearns to push free of a life they were born into. This is more evident in the harsh caste system in India where people are either big-bellied or small-bellied.

While this narration type is a smart choice for this film, it felt overused as exposition for Balram’s emotions. While Gourav’s performance was decent, the constant use of his inner monologue overtop of contemplative scenes made it unclear as to if the director did that stylistically or to help convey the character’s feelings. Either way, film is a visual medium and doesn’t need the monologue prose like that for every moment that the protagonist is alone.

The rest of the cast was good for what the story was, but none of the characters jumped off the screen. They either had little screen time or weren’t given much time to develop into a full character. Even the couple that Gourav was serving had these issues despite being prominent characters. Rao gave Ashok a bit of range and showed his dismay for the conventions of the traditional caste system compared to the American life he had been living while Chopra Jonas seemed to be very one note throughout.

However, this film, like any other in this genre, relies heavily on the story, direction and cinematography and that is where The White Tiger shines. The story can feel unorganized at times, but it all fits together in the bigger picture. That’s because Bahrani knew exactly how he wanted to tell this story which happens to be written by his former classmate. This comes together with some exceptional cinematography that immerses the audience into the streets of India from the mansions and city life to the life of a villager wanting to find any way to break the mold and bring their family into fame and fortune.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Dylan Phillips