I recently watched "The White Tiger" on Netflix, so I decided to put my film analysis knowledge into practice :) I'll be comparing the colour elements from the opening scene with the ending scene.
Summary:
Based on a novel by Aravind Adiga (2008), and won 40th Man Booker Prize. The story talks about how an ambitious driver climbs the social ladder to escape from poverty after killing his master.
The film is on Netflix, and directed by Rahmin Bahrani.
The leading casts are, Adarsh Gourav, Rajkummar Rao, and Priyanka Chopra.
Casts:
1. Adarsh Gourav as Balram Halwai (later Ashok Sharma).
An ambitious driver and servant to The Stork, the village's landlord who rises from poverty and becomes a successful entrepreneur.
2. Rajkummar Rao as Ashok, the youngest son of The Stork, and husband to Pinky.
He is seemed to be kind and gentle compared to his father and brother. However, there are certain times where he'll lose his temper and becomes violent and disrespectful towards Balram like his father and brother.
3. Priyanka Chopra as Pinky. An Indian-American wife of Ashok.
In the film, she is known to be open-minded due to her American background. For example, wearing pants, demanding the men in the family to respect her, and ignoring the caste system.
Opening Scene:
In the opening scene, it shows off the cultural and religious beliefs in India, as it shows statues of different Gods. Moreover, the scene also begins with the narrator saying: "this is not the way to start the story, I am Indian after all. It should start by showing the Gods of India." Also, it was mentioned that there are 36 million gods in the Hindu culture.
Besides that, it also shows the differences between the rich and the poor. How Ashok, Pinky, and their driver Balram are enjoying their journey in the car, whereas there is a family on the street living humbly.
Colour Elements:
The scene emphasizes the religious beliefs in India, as there were multiple shots of the holy statues. Also, it started with bright colourful neon lights, to plain humble colours. Signifying craze and plainness.
The neon lights like red and green could represent the thrilling feeling and craziness that's happening on this night, as Pinky and Ashok were happily celebrating her birthday. Later that night, she decided to drive under the influence.
Once the narrator has calmed down, the holy statues were shot in plain and humble colours, which could represent his background. A poor village in Laxmangarh, which the narrator describes as the village of darkness.
Ending Scene:
In the ending scene, it shows a successful Balram (now Ashok Sharma) owning a company and speaking briefly with the president of China, Mr. Wen Jia Bao. Once, Mr. Wen entered the building, Balram said that the future is now China and India. Signifying that people of colour are the future and no longer slaves for white people like in the past.
Besides that, the scene also shows how proud he is of himself for breaking out of poverty and his mindset of only being deemed worthy to be a servant and he encourages his employees to do the same.
Colour Elements:
In comparison with the opening scene, the colours were subtle, as it mostly consists of buildings and people. In this scene, he now wears dark clothes with extravagant prints. This is quite contrasting compared to the opening scene, where he was dressed as Maharaja for Pinky's birthday.
At the end of the movie, bright neon lights were present once again. But this time, it signifies glory and success. This is because he tells his employees what is a true nightmare, and he is proud of escaping out of the coop. Meaning that he has broken his fate of being poor.
Film Adaptation:
Since the film was adapted from a book, let's see how well it was made according to theory.
According to Kimmey M.E (2013), the three modes of engagement for film adaptation are telling, showing, and interacting. It represents transfer expression from one mode to another.
Linda Hutcheon stated that it is impossible for adaptation to be completely faithful to its original source because the rate of plagiarism will arise. Therefore, adaptation has to be unique while maintaining its original idea and message. She has also stated that when it comes to language, there are some translations that could never be literal because of the context. For example, when we say "have you eaten yet?" in Mandarin, some phrases will be “你吃饭了吗？” which means "have you eaten rice yet?" in English. Hence, it is evident that it can be quite tricky for films to follow the book completely.
Taking reference from Wong, P (2021), the film was not as good as the book because it did not include much humor. Hence, leaving the film with much insufficient context. Furthermore, Wong, P (2021) also stated that viewers who have not read the book may not understand much of the movie. For instance, the liquor bottle that was used to kill Ashok was Johnny Walker was because Ashok's family fancies Western alcohol. However in the novel, Adiga suggested that as India overthrew western colonialism, the politicians were still corrupted because of westerners.
My personal thoughts:
Although Wong, P (2021) thinks that Balram's quote "White people are on their way out know, they'll be finished within our lifetime. It's the century of the brown mand and the yellow man and God save everybody else." may be confusing for viewers who have not read the book, but personally it's my favourite quote from the film.
Because right now, I am able to see more people of colour appearing on screens, and becoming impactful people like Kamala Harris, Lana Condor, and Gemma Chan. As an Asian, I can agree that the people of colour are about to take on the world, and western imperialism will end soon.
Overall, I rate this film a 4/5 for the deliverance of message, and courage of Balram for making out of the coop and I would recommend this film for those who are inferior of breaking the rules to live their best life.
References:
Kinney, M.E. (2013). Critical Voices: The University of Guelph Book Review Project. Available at: file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/2655-Article%20Text-15210-1-10-20130901.pdf [Accessed 24 Feb. 2021].
Wong, P. (2021). “The White Tiger” book roars louder than its film adaptation - The Tufts Daily. [online] The Tufts Daily. Available at: https://tuftsdaily.com/arts/2021/02/03/the-white-tiger-book-roars-louder-than-its-film-adaptation/ [Accessed 24 Feb. 2021].
All videos and photos were obtained from YouTube.
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