The White Tiger

A zestful epic blessed with rapier wit, casually dazzling dialogue, gorgeous cinematography (by Paolo Carnera ) and, at the center of it all, a sensational star turn by an actor, singer and songwriter named Adarsh Gourav.

Despite its obvious currency, it's more yesterday than tomorrow.

Bahrani's jagged sense of purpose and his street-level point-of-view allow him to attack this material with the same blunt force of Adiga's book, and to suffuse it with the sights and sounds required to bring it all to life.

Yet it's so smartly constructed by Bahrani, and so sympathetically played by Gourav, that it's hard not to be seduced by what is essentially a dizzy, woozy, taxi ride to the dark side.

A mostly lumbering and largely dreary satire.

Through his eyes, Balram's singular story - in all its wild, exuberant improbability - roars to life.

A sometimes grim but compelling look at a young Indian man's ambition to break out of poverty and ingratiate himself to the rich. A tonal counterpoint to Slumdog Millionaire.

The White Tiger could be seen as a cynical film, in which our hero is as corrupt, amoral, and ruthless as the people against whom he finally rebels. That's the point...

This is a beautifully made film with especially noteworthy writing, directing, editing and cinematography that takes Belram from the slums of India to Delhi's grandest hotels.

It's attempting to be a pseudo-American Psycho satire, with its central character shown to be a product of capitalism's corruption on the other end of the tax brackets.