The White Tiger

Ramin Bahrani has set his ponderous "amorality" tale, The White Tiger, in modern-day India, the world's most populous democracy and a nation of rigid class divisions, crushing poverty and political corruption. His hero is Balram, the cagey driver for a wealthy family, whose obsequious demeanor masks the young man's bitterness. This bitterness sets the sardonic tone of the film's voice-over, but this is no comedic piece, like the similarly themed Parasite of 2019. Bahrani's story is cleverly written but, more than anything, it is unsettling.

Over the course of the film, Balram (a remarkably expressive Adarsh Gourav) is, by turns, treated like a beloved member of the household and like human refuse. The shifts are jarring and, quite likely, are reflective of the deep disdain the rich "big bellies" have for the poor "small bellies," i.e., decency, consistency and other-regard don't matter to those who control everything. (Sound familiar?) This treatment is maddening and there are moments in the film when Balram's sanity (or, at least his reliability as a narrator) seems to be in doubt. His encounter with the eponymous creature, a freak of nature whose birth presages great change, was one such moment.

The film's narrative is a variety of Bildungsroman, but in the case rathe than pushing through challenges to become a better person than circumstances would ordinarily permit, the hero grows up and corrupt, dehumanized by his country and by his relationship with two young members of the household -- Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and Pinky (Priyanka Chopra). Ashok's seduction and Pinky's self-involvement light the fuse for the story's explosive conclusion.