The director, Rahman Bahrain, who’s made other great character driven films like 99 Homes and Man Push Cart, created a film that can resonate with audiences on many humanistic levels.
The film is a compelling, suspenseful drama about an Indian boy from a low caste family that is beaten down by the archaic and sinister system that forces him and his family to live like less than individuals, like untouchables if a thing could ever exist. Balram played masterfully by Gourav beats the odds by employing methods that are reminiscent of an American antihero cut from the same cloth as a Don Draper to build an empire. It’s also a rousing perspective into Indian life and culture, particularly in places like Delhi and Bangalore, the “Indian Silicon Valley” as it’s referred to. Rife with gripping scenes of the devastating class divides that India has, it’s also a powerful film about a country of billion people that many Americans know very little about.
It’s all of these things, and it doesn’t struggle from the pitfall that lesser movies fall into when juggling many competing elements. Bahrain has a steady hand and paced the film very well, a scene towards the end of the movie where Balram is asked for spare rupees by an older woman shows how much that his servanthood and the other factors in his life has brought about his volatile behavior. Scenes like these speak to more than just what the audience is directly shown. Indirectly, we see how the lower caste system is permitted to treat each other, poorly in this instance.
Rajkummar Rao, who played Ashok, also had a fantastic performance. His character needed to be amiable enough for a climatic scene to have the teeth that Bahrain was likely intending that it would have. He was though, and his role required a lot of range to show how the son of the Stork could be compassionate at times, while as wicked and underhanded at others. Priyanka Chopra as Pinky was another wonderful character that was important to the development of the story in how she helped Balram see what he possessed inside himself to live his destiny and be ‘the White Tiger’.
