A few thoughts after watching the film White Tiger.

Netflix seldom hits the bull's eye when recommending me a film or TV show. I’m glad today they did. I came across white Tiger on my Netflix dashboard and watched the trailer which intrigued me to click play. Really refreshing to watch an Indian film that is not on the typical Bollywood lines. It doesn’t have a single song. Priyanka Chopra’s accent in English - Voila! Brilliant voice and accent trainer she’s got. A steep upward curve I’d say compared to her accent in English in Quantico.

While watching the film, I was thinking - my foreign friends who have negative experiences with Indians in the workplace shouldn’t watch this movie. Their image of Indians will be further skewed to the left. I reflected on that thought. I scratch the first one out. I think a lot of people must watch this film. Don’t say I didn’t warn you - watch it with an open mind.

Let’s face the facts. India is a country of approximately 1.3 billion people. What you watch in the film isn’t every Indian's reality or back story. It isn’t the backstory of that smart IT guy working with you or a programmer in your team in Bangalore. Neither might it be the reality of the guy answering your customer service calls somewhere in Pune, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, or Bangalore.

Another thought I had was, hmmm... maybe this might be a good film for an example of how business is done in India or about Indian culture. But hold that beer, my friend! What you see in the film isn’t the least representation of an average Indian’s work ethic or cultural behavior.

Not all of your Indian colleagues are sons or daughters of a landlord who owns a village somewhere in rural India as depicted in the movie. I have a lot of acquaintances living and working outside of India - this isn’t any of their reality or background. Neither are they on the other end of that spectrum - being impoverished.

Another aspect of the movie that caught my attention seriously is the variation in the English Accents across characters. Balram's character versus Ashok's versus Pinky'sversus Ashok's father. Often people in Poland think that most Indians have English accents as portrayed by Balram. The truth is far from that. In my opinion, most of us are quite similar to Ashok's accent in the movie or even Ashok's brother. I would put mine somewhere between Ashok and Pinky, Pinky being on the top. The variation of each character's accent in English has been captured to the T. Very impressive. They've done an amazing job at that.

Coming back to India is a country with a population of 1.3 billion - that’s 17.7% of the world population. Say what?? That’s right. Not everyone is living below the poverty line on the streets like the guy in slumdog millionaire, neither like the wealthy people often depicted in Bollywood, nor is everyone Balram from White Tiger. The master-slave concept doesn’t exist for many of us Indians. Neither the extreme rage that makes the character Balram kill his boss Ashok and steal his money for personal gain. However the bribery - oh yes. It totally exists. I wouldn’t defend that for a second. For someone to think that everything portrayed in the film is the actual reality - you’d be making a great error in judgment.

The purpose of this post is to put the word out there as an individual originally from India - Please don’t think this is a representation of India. Yes probably millions of people do have this as their reality and that is gravely sad and unfortunate. Apart from that, I am impressed to watch a film by Priyanka Chopra’s production company that hasn’t followed suit with most productions that make you want to never again watch an Indian film. So watch the film. It’s gripping and interesting. It won’t give you a whole idea of Indians but it will surely give you one perspective of it. It will add to your wealth of knowledge that there are people living in rural underdeveloped villages whose life still is that way, however miserable that is. The country is a land of Yoga, colorful festivals, breathtaking nature, Bollywood, IT hubs alongside amazing sewage systems, and incomparable housing facilities. But just one aspect of either of these isn’t everyone’s truth.

Photo credit - https://psa.one/movie/the-white-tiger-2021