"The White Tiger" is the antidote to "Slumdog Millionaire." The latter film feels like a bunch of white guys appropriating Indian culture to tell their version of a fairy tale. "The White Tiger," by contrast, feels like a movie about India made by people who understand India.
It's an energetic, exuberant movie about the desperation that drives a poor ambitious man from a small village to murder and eventually a life of wealth and privilege. It's a dog eat dog story, almost literal in its telling and lacking any nuance, but pretty entertaining. It also feels very familiar to those of us living in places like the United States, where the lip service given to words like democracy, freedom, and capitalism are belied by the reality of those who have trampling over those who have not in the race to get even more.
I enjoyed the glimpses of modern-day India that this movie offered, even if they convinced me it's not a place I'm in any hurry to visit soon.
Grade: A-
It's an energetic, exuberant movie about the desperation that drives a poor ambitious man from a small village to murder and eventually a life of wealth and privilege. It's a dog eat dog story, almost literal in its telling and lacking any nuance, but pretty entertaining. It also feels very familiar to those of us living in places like the United States, where the lip service given to words like democracy, freedom, and capitalism are belied by the reality of those who have trampling over those who have not in the race to get even more.
I enjoyed the glimpses of modern-day India that this movie offered, even if they convinced me it's not a place I'm in any hurry to visit soon.
Grade: A-