The White Tiger is a unique, unapologetic tale on a young man from rags to riches. It breaks the stereotype of the formula already set by ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and shows how the hero of our story can become a villain to achieve success and still makes us sympathize and root for him at the same time. In fact, The White Tiger took a dig at its counterpart’s philosophy when it says, “Don’t think for a second there’s a million-rupee game show you can win to get out”.

The star of the entire film is no other than the newcomer Adarsh Gourav himself. Not only did he carry the movie as the main character like a pro, but his performance was also very nuanced and allows you to see Balram’s point of view as his character develops. From the scenes where Balram happily tells Pinky that all he wants is to serve his masters to the scene where Balram shouts at a beggar from pent-up frustration, Adarsh delivered convincingly throughout. Priyanka Chopra and Rajkummar Rao, being notably A-list starers, took a slight back seat and allowed the main character to shine as needed by the storyline.

 One common problem I heard about The White Tiger is the language medium. Most of the film is narrated in English with very little Hindi used in certain scenes. On the contrary, I do not find this a problem at all. I think the director manages to use both languages rather efficiently in the film to contrast the difference between the educated and rich speaking in English and the poorer community speaking in Hindi. I understand that this may not be the case in India and the language usage might not depict reality, but for an English language film, I find the usage effective.

If there is one thing I must complain about The White Tiger, it would be the ending. The whole movie was extremely gripping until the last few moments after Balram killed Ashok. In my opinion, the scenes where Balram starts building his empire felt rather rushed and could have been fleshed out a lot more. When Balram was seen trying to talk to the Chinese premier in the end, I remember thinking, “Is that it? How can that be the ending?”. Somehow a movie with a strong beginning and weak ending feels more of a let-down than a movie with a weak beginning and a strong ending.