Thinking Activity : The White Tiger

 The White Tiger 

by

Aravind Adiga

" Let's meet Balram Halwai : The White Tiger, Servant, Philosopher, murderer and entrepreneur."

" The White Tiger " is a novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008 and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in Literature in the same year. The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India's class struggle in a globalized world as told through a retrospective  narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. The novel examines the issues of Hindu religion, Caste, loyalty, corruption and poverty in India.

" Our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy or punctuality, does have entrepreneur. Thousand and thousand of them." ( page : 5 )

Yes, it is the journey of success from poor village boy to successful entrepreneur. Through the eyes of Balram Halwai or through the narration of Balram Halwai we visit the two India : The India of Darkness and the India of Light. Balram Halwai is the protagonist character of the novel. There are many other major and minor characters in the novel like,

Major Characters Balram Halwai Mr. Ashok Pinky Madam Kusum Granny Wen Jiabao Kishan Vikram Halwai The Stork The Mongoose Ram Persad Dharam Vijay Vitiligo Lips Ram Bahadur/ The Nepali

Minor Character The Wild Boar The Buffalo The Raven Mr. Krishna Ms. Uma The Inspector Balram's Family Muslim Bookseller The minister's Assistence

Now let us discuss about the movie adaption of The White Tiger.

The movie " The White Tiger " is an adaption of Aravind Adiga's 2008 novel of the same name.

Adiga dedicated The White Tiger to his close friend Ramin Bahrani, whom he met while attending Columbia University.

According to both Ramin and Aravind, the two have been talking about The White Tiger for nearly three decades. In fact Ramin had the opportunity to read sevaral early draft of the book well before it was ever published.

Likewise, when Ramin was bringing the novel to the big screen, Aravind Adiga was there to provide feedback for him as well. As per the production note Aravind Adiga said that,

" Not many dreams in life come true, but this one has 12 years later, my novel has become a film and Ramin Bahrani is the director.  Witty, Provocating and moving the film he has made not only brings my book to life, but transcends it."

And finally the movie was released on 22nd January 2021, directed by Ramin Bahrani and edited by Tim Streeto and Ramin Bahrani. 

"The White Tiger" premiered at Las Vegas on 6th January 2021 and was screened at limited movie theatres in the United States on 13th January 2021. it was released globally through the streaming platform Netflix on 22nd January 2021.

The movie centred on Balram Halwai ( Adarsh Gaurav ), it follows a poor boy in village in Bihar, who travels to Dhanbad and ends up in Delhi and Banglore, becoming a shining model of new capitalist India: An Entrepreneur.

If we talk about the movie then it is half faithful to the book The White Tiger. The Acting of Adarsh Gaurav ( Balram Halwai ) is worth praising. Still the characters of Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam are not as important as Balram Halwai. It is far better to read the book first then the movie because as we all know that movie has certain time limits. so, the director must be changed some of the scenes from the movie.