I didn’t like the book and I didn’t like the movie.
I am so, so tempted to leave this review at just that one sentence but I know that would be a bit disingenuous since I am very much in the minority on this. So I’ll give you a slightly fuller picture and you will be your own judge. If you’d like to watch this movie, you have my blessing, and you’ll find it on Netflix.
Balram (Adarsh Gourav) is a servant in India; his caste is his destiny. He works for people he admires – Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and Pinky (Priyanka Chopra) – which doesn’t mean they’re nice, only that they’re wealthy, and upwardly mobile . Balram would like to be those things one day too, but for him there is no opportunity and no path toward a better life. Society itself is built around oppressing his kind and making sure they never, ever get their own ideas. So he must beat down his own path, with whatever meagre tools and talents he has. It’s going to be brutal, and it’s going to be bloody, but for Balram, entrepreneurship is the ultimate goal and the holy grail in one. It is worth any price.
The movie kept my attention better than the book, which I found tedious; the film benefits from brisk editing and a Jay-Z remix. I still didn’t enjoy it though, and I’m realizing it’s partially because the protagonist is so dislikable. Balram is hardly the first anti-hero though, and somehow I usually manage to cope. I suppose it’s that when I encounter other characters I dislike – Batman, for example – there’s usually something else I can root for, like good vs. evil. The White Tiger doesn’t give you that; it’s bad vs. worse and you can never be sure which of these slippery sides our protagonist is leaning toward. I guess I needed something to hold onto, and Balram’s underdog status just wasn’t cutting it. Balram’s story is given to us via a letter he’s writing to some successful Chinese businessman, who ultimately brushes him off, unimpressed by the story and the man, and I suppose I, too, was left cold by Balram’s plight. Perhaps you will feel more sympathetic.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
I’m curious, you finished reading a book you didn’t like? I’d have never finished it.
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I also find anti-hero protagonists difficult to stomach. I had planned to check it out. Thanks for the warning.
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Tubularsock find HERO protagonists difficult to stomach. However, Tubularsock is just having one of those anti-hero days!
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Loved the review! Now Tubularsock can hate the movie too. Tubularsock will take your word for it.
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I do have trouble with anti-heroes. I probably would dislike this as well. It sounds like it would annoy me.
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I heard mixed responses about the film as I do like Ramin Bahrani based on the films I’ve seen from him (the only other film I haven’t seen from him so far is the TV version of Fahrenheit 451).
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I love an antihero. Walter White, Tony Soprano, Don Draper, even Marty Byrde… I’m listing some of the greatest shows ever written. However, don’t think I’ll be tuning in to watch this. Thanks for the review!
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Don Drapper association didn’t occur to me until last post, Spoilers ~though eluded to early on. Although this is a rough movie to watch, it’s clever and mordant and has a dark take on the Horatio Alger work hard upward mobility trope. Everyone is striving in this movie, even the wealthy Indians as they try to become more Western/American and shed their brutal caste based Indian ways. This movie will inevitably be compared to Slum Dog Millionaire as it also depicts the rise out of abysmal third world poverty. Like SDM this starts a sweet and standard boy coming out of extreme poverty movie and takes a dark turn. In some ways the filmmaker is critiquing Western audiences and their expectations.
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The honesty is appreciated!
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That’s two duds today. š¦ … time for a little Hallmarking and a post Christmas-Eve-wedding ending. š
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