PROVOKR PICK: THE WHITE TIGER
Priyanka Chopra-Jonas, A Tale of Crime + Caste
Set in contemporary India, the pitch-black comedy The White Tiger focuses on Balram Halwai (newcomer Adarsh Gourav). He narrates his life story for us, beginning with his days as an impoverished villager, through his time as a driver for the well-traveled, Americanized Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and Pinky (Priyanka Chopra-Jonas). At first, he makes himself indispensable to his wealthy bosses. But, after one fateful night, when Ashok and Pinky force Balram to take the blame for a car accident they caused, he realizes just how far they will go to keep him down and themselves lifted. He decides to rebel against the system and find a new path to success.
Eventually, he rises out of the rigid caste system to find success as the owner of his own taxi service. Of course, getting there wasn’t easy and required him to use his cunning and wits to scramble up from the bottom. In the process, he transforms himself into something of a crime kingpin, or a white tiger, as he calls it. The trailer promises us a gritty crime drama that skewers the rigid class system in modern-day India, which is heavily contradicted by its increasing globalization.
Ramin Bahrani (Fahrenheit 451) wrote and directed The White Tiger, based on Arvind Adiga’s 2008 debut novel of the same name. The book, which is a darkly comedic glimpse into India’s caste system, won the 40th Man Booker Prize and is a New York Times bestseller. Adiga, who was only 33 when his book was released, is the second-youngest writer and the fourth debut novelist to win the Man Booker Prize. Ava DuVernay (Selma) and Chopra-Jonas served as executive producers on the project. The White Tiger had a limited theatrical release on January 13, 2021.
Watch The White Tiger streaming on Netflix starting on January 22, 2021.
