73PHOTOGRAPH:
ANUEL
AA/Y
OUTUBE
recollections of Balram, who, in the film’s
present of 2010, is an entrepreneur who
owns a car service in Bangalore; he relays
his shady path to power via candid, overly
familiar, slightly delusional emails to the
then-premier of China, Wen Jiabao, who
is set to visit India soon. Balram (who,
we learn, is now a wanted man) proffers
a lot of opinions and observations about
his country and his rural hometown in
“the Darkness,” his metaphor for the
vast, uneducated, impoverished swaths
of India. Wanting no part of a dead-end
life that would doom him to die in desti-
tute misery like his father, young Balram
finds his way to the city, where he ingrati-
ates himself with the family of one of the
landowners who effectively run his home-
town and becomes one of their drivers. As
played by Gourav, Balram is all smiles and
innocent servitude, always knowing what
to say—he initially refuses to be paid, not-
ing the sheer honor of working for some-
one from back home. But he’s cunning,
too. Early on, he manages to get the head
driver fired after he discovers the manis
a Muslim.
Balram soon becomes the primary
driver for Ashok, the family’s U.S.-
educated adult son, who, with his young
wife, has recently moved back to India.
Ashok feels uncomfortable with the medi-
eval privileges of his class, and he and
Pinky treat Balram with a combination
of familiarity and condescension. For all
their friendliness, they wonder bemusedly
about the fact that he instinctively makes
signs of reverence when passing by even
the smallest holy site. To them, he is not
quite a person but rather an object to be
lovingly scrutinized, as well as a measure
of what they see as their own enlightened
modernity. It’s not long before the thin
illusion of friendship is shattered and Bal-
ram becomes a scapegoat for Ashok and
Pinky’s lethal irresponsibility and care-
lessness. (That’s not a spoiler: The film
hints at it in the opening scene.)
Bahrani’s work has gone from exploring
the far edges of poverty and labor in the
U.S. to the ruthless coercions of runaway
capitalism, examining how class works on
both ends, for those who have nothing to
lose and those who have everything to lose.
But The White Tiger may be the first time
those extremes have occupied the same
frame. Even though this is Balram’s story,
Bahrani understands the class anxieties of
the wealthy, largely useless Ashok, whose
sincerity clashes with his casual embrace
of his family’s corruption. The adaptation
is quite faithful to the book, but the fact
that Ashok and Pinky come through as
more rounded characters here (that they
are played by two genuine movie starsprobably helps) gives Balram’s storymore
psychological and emotional weightashis
increasingly ruthless ambition manifests
itself in a struggle with his humanity.
Balram’s insistent, cheerful narration
slowly gives way to reveal the darkerstory
that The White Tiger always was,about
the force of will and cruelty requiredto
get ahead in a society where therulesof
class are ironclad. So, too, doesBahrani’s
st yle shift, from the poppy freneticism
of the film’s first half to somethinggrim,unhinged, maybe even a little surreal. It
works because Balram is such a powerful
character (Gourav, a relative unknown, is a
real find, alternately cherubic and deadly)
and we’ve become invested in his unsen-
timental education. Through this unique
figure and this highly specific portrait of
one country, The White Tiger achieves a
kind of universality. “The Darkness” Bal-
ram speaks of can be found not just in
India. It cuts across borders and conti-
nents, and into the soul as well. ■AnuelAAandOzuna.borna fewmonthsapart inthemetropolitanareaofSan
Juan,PuertoRico,the28-year-oldurbanostarsOzunaand
AnuelAAtookvery differentpathstointernationalsuccess.As the
mixed-racechildofanAfro-Latinofatheranda whitePuertoRican
mother,Anuelfeltthestriationsanddualitiesofhishometown’sculture
firsthand;then,in 2007 , hisfather,theveteranproducerJoséGazmey,
losthisjobasa Sony recordsexecutive,crushingthefamily’s financial
stability. Anuelfoundmusicandtroubleinequalmeasureashesearched
foranendtohisstruggles.Meanwhile,Ozunasteeredclearofthestreets,
singingandworkingat a bar. He wastryingtohelphisgrandmother,
whohadtakenhiminafterhisfatherwasshottodeath.Ozuna’s grand-
mothertaughthimspirituality, andhisuncleaidedhismusicaleduca-
tion,givinghima microphoneandexposinghimtoreggaetonasthe
musicleapedfromlocaltointernationalacclaimintheaughts.
The differences in Ozuna’s and Anuel’s storiesman-
ifest in their music. Ozuna sells yearning, romantic
tunes in a high, lonesome croon; Anuel’s grufftone
hints at, and sometimes revels in, a palpable darkness.
Ozuna’s 2017 debut album, Odisea, was the culmina-
tion of a long series of increasingly successfulsingles
typifying the minting of a new commercialstar;POP / CRAIG JENKINSLost in the ClubA joint effort from two hitmakersthat hits only half the time.LOS DIOSES
OZUNA AND
ANUEL AA.
REAL HASTA
LA MUERTE/AURA
MUSIC CORP.