The White Tiger: Netflix adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s satirical novel is slick, punchy 21st-century rags-to-riches tale

“America is so yesterday,” announces ambitious anti-hero Balram (Adarsh Gourav), moments into The White Tiger. “In the belief that the future of the world lies with the yellow man and the brown man… I offer to tell you the truth about India, by telling you the story of my life.”

So begins director Ramin Bahrani’s scathing, often very funny 21st-century rags-to-riches saga, a compressed but compelling adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s 2008 Booker Prize-winning bestseller that casts a satirical eye over class, colonialism, and — not insignificantly — the darker sides of globalisation and Silicon Valley aspiration.

That it’s streaming on global content factory Netflix only sweetens the sting in the tale.