Sanjoy Ray
CINEMASCAPE
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Cast: Adarsh Gourav, Rajkummar Rao, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, etc.
Had it not been for its climax, The White Tiger would have been a runaway winner in all the departments. In one of the closing scenes, the protagonist reminiscences that the reason behind him getting away scot-free despite committing an offence as serious as murder was the fact that he looked like a major chunk of India’s population.
Such an inexplicable justification was least expected – especially when the narrative is so aptly handled from the word go, keeping the audience on tenterhooks till the most part of the storyline. Having said that, in The White Tiger, director Ramin Bahrani manages to tick most boxes right, making the film, currently streaming on Netflix, worth a watch.
Based on the Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name by Aravind Adiga, the story starts on an interesting note where a successful entrepreneur narrates his ‘rags to riches’ story and depicts how a road mishap involving his employer changes his fate and how he ends up becoming a successful entrepreneur from being just a driver and the price he has had to pay to achieve his materialistic goals.
A scene from White Tiger.
At no point in time till the movie reaches its climax does it drop its tempo; also, the film effortlessly showcases the unannounced conflict between the haves and the have-nots. What is even more commendable is that despite Rajkummar Rao and Priyanka Chopra Jonas featuring in the lineup, the director never loses focus on the main character essayed by Adarsh Gourav nor does he allow the star power of the duo affect the flow of the narrative in any manner.
Adarsh, too, impresses with his vulnerability and the variation that he brings to the table.
Rajkummar Rao and Priyanka Chopra Jonas do what is expected of them. Mahesh Manjrekar plays his part well in the limited screen space he is given.
