The strange thing about The White Tiger, the much-awaited film that dropped on Netflix on Friday, is that it is such a ‘talkie’ film. The protagonist, Balram Halwai, talks and talks—mostly as a voiceover to himself (uh-oh), or to an imaginary figure, as well as to others. In its anxiety to cover max ground from Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker prize-winning eponymous book of 2008, on which it is based, it junks the proven show-don’t-tell formula, for a show-and-tell film. This is a pity, because the book is a solid and terrific read, and its politics of the underdog in the new India, spot-on.

With big guns backing The White Tiger, it has ‘globalised Indian film’ stamped all over it. Produced by Mukul Deora (who also produced Bheja Fry) and Ramin Bahrani, its executive producers include Oscar-nominated Ava DuVernay (whose Array also distributed Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy), and it stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Rajkummar Rao and surprise package Adarsh Gourav. It is directed by Ramin Bahrani, multiple award-winning American director of Iranian origin (and Adiga’s college buddy), who has directed and produced about 19 films and series, according to imdb.com. Bahrani’s films include 99 Homes, that was at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, and Fahrenheit 451.