White Tiger

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This film, which is currently available on Netflix, has shown up on some lists as a potential for an Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination. While I not have seen enough foreign films to judge, I doubt it would end up on my list. It’s a decently entertaining film, but certainly not a great one. The eponymous “White Tiger” is Balram, a lower-caste Indian man who is working as a chauffer to a rich (and Americanized) Indian couple. Balram is played by Adarsh Gourav with an intensity that mixes a Joker-esque frozen grimace of a smile with eyes that are sheer panic and rage. It’s an unnerving performance and the best thing about this film. Based on a novel by Indian writer Aravind Adiga, this is clearly meant to be a cautionary tale about classism and caste politics. And, at times, it can be genuinely unnerving. But, just when it should be pulling back, it doubles down. As a result, the final result lacks impact. Knowing nothing about Indian culture, I don’t know how to evaluate this film. But, I couldn’t help but wonder if what I was seeing was more of an exaggerated parody than an honest depiction of how lower castes are treated in India today. The characters were all a bit too one-dimensional, and their villainy a bit too pronounced to seem like anything but archetypes. In the end, the story lacks the nuance to make me care about the title character’s journey.