The first reviews of Priyanka Chopra and Rajkummar Rao starrer – The White Tiger – is finally here. And the film seems to have bowled the critics over. Winning rave reviews from all quarters, White Tiger revolves around an NRI couple and their domestic help. Describing the film as fast and sleek, many have even called it better than Slumdog Millionaire. Let's take a look at some of the reviews here.
The Guardian: An absorbing tale of feline ambition. The White Tiger is a dangerous adventure of self-betterment from the teeming city streets, influenced by Adiga's own avowed love of Dickens and Balzac, and it's a really enjoyable story.
The Hollywood Reporter: The sting of underclass payback doesn't rival that of, say, Parasite, but the movie taps into the same simmering rage of the have-nots, shafted out of an unyielding system in a perilously unbalanced world. It could almost be considered the anti-Slumdog Millionaire.
Screen International: The White Tiger is a sweeping, singularly impressive adaptation of Aravind Adiga's punky 2008 Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name. But transforming it all into a work of cathartic entertainment is a significant achievement for the Iranian-American director. In a quiet awards race, his film certainly roars.
Evening Standard: This Netflix drama is out to provoke. As angry, smart and dark as Parasite, it explores the horrors of one country's class system (in this case, India's caste system), while also putting racial oppression, high-end political corruption and global economic trends under focus. Bahrani rubs our noses in the frailty and freakishness of the human body and the result is both beautiful and rousing.
CBR: The White Tiger is a tale of striving and success in India. It's a challenging, thought-provoking film that doesn't give any of its characters a free pass. Although it provides the context necessary to understand many of their actions, there's a baked-in irony that ensures none of its conclusions are simple.
