I hope he will immerse himself deeper in that country, then go on to greater things. There are so many alternative Indias, uncontacted and unheard.

My hunch is this is fundamentally an outsider's view and a superficial one. Characters at the colourful extremities of society are Dickensian grotesques, Phiz sketches, adrift in a country that is lurching rapidly towards bland middle-class normality. The home country is invariably presented as a place of brutal injustice and sordid corruption, one in which the poor are always dispossessed and victimised by their age-old enemies, the rich. The scales have fallen from the eyes of some Indian writers, many either living abroad, or educated there like Adiga. There is much to commend in this novel, a witty parable of India's changing society, yet there is much to ponder. He happily abuses religious foibles and hatreds of others where it suits, dispatching a rival driver to destitution via a little anti-Muslim prejudice.

He has the voice of what may, or may not, be a new India: quick-witted, half-baked, self-mocking, and quick to seize an advantage. He gets a lucky break when he learns to handle a car, then lands a job as driver for a landlord from his village. Priyanka was also a co-producer of the English language film. It also starred Adarsh Gourav, Mahesh Manjrekar and Vijay Maurya. This is because he, along with most lowly Indians, inhabits the Darkness, a place where basic necessities are routinely snatched by the wealthy, who live in the Light. Talking about Priyanka and Rajkummars relationship, they have starred as husband and wife in Ramin Bahranis adaptation of Aravind Adigas Booker Prize-winning novel, The White Tiger. His disrespect for his elders and betters is shocking - even Mahatma Gandhi gets the lash of his scornful tongue.īalram has worked out early in life that good deeds usually have awful consequences.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga