This document provides an analysis and comparison of The White Tiger novel by Aravind Adiga and the film Slumdog Millionaire. Both stories follow protagonists from impoverished backgrounds in India who rise to success against all odds. Key similarities include the characters overcoming extreme poverty and injustice in society. Differences include The White Tiger focusing on social problems as its theme, while Slumdog Millionaire includes a romantic element. Both feature conflict between the characters and society that drives the plot.

1. Name- Budhiditya Shankar Das
Course- M.A. (English)
Paper No.- 13
Sem- 04
Roll No.- 06
Email Id- budhiditya900@gmail.com
Submitted to- Smt.S.B.Gardi
Department of English
M.K.Bhavnagar University
Comparison between The White Tiger and
the movie Slumdog Millionaire

2. ABOUT AUTHOR
-> Aravind Adiga is an Indo-
Australian writer and Journalist.
-> His debut novel, The White
Tiger,
won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.
-> Aravind Adiga was born in
Madras on 23 October 1974.
-> Adiga grew up in Mangalore
and studied at Canara High
School.
-> He is the fourth Indian-born
author to win the prize, after
Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy,
and Kiran Desai.

4. THE WHITE TIGER
-> The novel studies the contrast between India's rise as a
modern global economy and the lead
character, Balram, who comes from crushing rural poverty.
-> “At a time when India is going through great changes and,
with China, is likely to inherit the world from the West, it is
important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal
injustices of [Indian] society. That's what I'm trying to do – it
is not an attack on the country, it's about the greater
process of self-examination.”

5. -> “See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to
eat and looking like the rich. And
what do the rich dream of?? Losing weight and looking like
the poor.”
- Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
-> The entire novel is narrated through letters by Balram
Halwai to the Premier of China, who will soon be visiting
India.

6. Plot Overview
Balram leaves
the school,
Balram finds
work at Stork’s
home
Balram goes to
Delhi,
Accident by
Pinky
Madam and
Ashok’s
murder by
Balram
Balram
succeeds
in escaping and
becomes
entrepreneur in
Bangalore

7. -> “The India of Light and the India of Darkness.”
-> “Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two
countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of
Darkness.”
-> An entrepreneur who emerges from the ‘India of
Darkness” and enters into the ‘India of Light’
-> Two ‘Indias’ in one India.

8. LIGHTNESS AND DARKNESS
-> Duality of light and dark.
-> Light then becomes a
multifaceted symbol of time,
wealth, location and
obligation.
-> While Darkness represent
the past, poverty, rural India
and most importantly loyalty
to family and master.

9. MAJOR CHARACTERS
The White Tiger
-> Balram Halwai
-> Wen Jiabo
-> Mr. Ashok
-> Pinky Madam
-> Kusum
-> Vikram Halwai
-> Kishan
-> Dharam
Slumdog Millionaire
-> Jamal Malik
-> Latika
-> Salim Malik
-> Prem Kapoor (Anil
Kapoor)
-> Police Inspector

10. THE WHITE TIGER & SLUMDOG
MILLIONAIRE
-> The White Tiger is the story of
Balram Halwai’s life as a self declared
“self-made entrepreneur”: a rickshaw
driver’s son who skilfully climbs India’s
social ladder to become a chauffer and
later a successful businessman.
-> The film is based on a teen who
grew up in the slums in Mumbai. He
becomes a contestant on the Indian
version of “Who Wants To Be A
Millionaire?”.

11. -> Balram recounts his life story
in a letter to visiting Chinese
official Premier Wen Jiabao,
with the goal of educating the
premier about entrepreneurship
in India.
-> He is prevented under notion
of cheating as he knew all the
answers and wasn’t educated.
While being interrogated,
events from his life history are
shown which explain why he
knows the answers.

12. -> Balram writes from his luxurious office in the
city of Bangalore, but the story begins in his
rural ancestral village of Laxmangahr.
-> In the beginning of the film, he is one
question away from 20 million rupees, the
biggest prize of the contest.

13. SIMILARITIES IN BOTH MOVIE AND
NOVEL
-> The starting point is that they’re both Indian works, based
in India and about India.
-> The other thing is both their storylines are about
underdog characters from miserable
backgrounds and childhoods rising in an unlikely manner to
achieve success in life.
-> The main thing is that both feature an India in which
injustice, suffering and poverty are
significant and abundant in society.

14. -> The main plot focus between the two differs
markedly in that with White Tiger, the portrayal of
social problems is a main theme while Slumdog has
a romantic element as its central part of its storyline
with poverty and crime as significant but
accompanying.
-> They both are the victims of the poor societal
system in India; Jamal being tortured and Balram
being treated like a slave in the family he works for.

15. -> In The White Tiger Balram dreamt all his life of becoming
something successful and making
something of himself. Jamal, on the other hand, lived his life
focusing on finding the love of his life –Latika. He applied to
be on the show be cause he was hoping that Latika would be
watching him in the show – not to win the money.
-> One clear similarity is that the both main characters come
from extreme poor conditions. Balram Halwai grows up in a
poor family with a low caste in a small town in India and
Jamal becomes homeless at a very young age and starts to
live on the streets in the slum.

16. PROFESSION OF BOTH THE
PROTAGONISTS
-> Balram and his brother
Kishan begin working in a
teashop in nearby
Dhanbad, Balram neglects
his duties and spends his
days listening to customer’s
conversations.
-> He works at a call centre,
serving tea to the telephone
operators.

17. BALRAM HALWAI
-> Balram is an Indian man from an impoverished background, born in
the village of Laxmangarh.
-> Balram Halwai is a poor Indian villager whose great ambition dead
him to the highpoint of Indian business culture, the world of the
Bangalore industrialist.
-> One of the most important facts the school inspect named him “The
White Tiger”, “The rarest animal
-?n the jungle (P.30) because he is the cleverest child
in Laxmangarh.”

18. KISHAN HALWAI
-> Kishan is Balram’s older brother who cares for him after their father
dies. Though Kishan is an influential, fatherly figure in Balram’s life.
-> Kishan is Balram’s older brother who cares for him after their father
dies. Though Kishan is an influential, fatherly figure in Balram’s life,
Balram aments his brother’s lack of “entrepreneurial spirit”.
-> Kusum allows Kishan to work him hard, take most of his wages, and
arrange his marriage early in life, before he can support a family.

19. JAMAL MALIK
Uneducated – grew up in the slums of
Mumbai where children are forced to work
at an early age. Even if there are
opportunities, children have to make a
living instead of going to school.
Ambitious - he takes risks that others
would never take to achieve his goals. He
dives into a hole full of excrement so that
he could get out of the toilet in order to
get an autograph of his famous singer. He
introduces himself as a cook so that he can
enter Javed’s house which is another big
risk.

20. SALIM MALIK
- Jamal’s older brother
- He is hungry for money;
-> He sells Jamal’s autograph when
they are little kids.
-> He gets angry to lose his customer
because Jamal doesn’t get out of the
toilet.
- He is hungry for power;
- > Killing Maman is easy for him and
he starts to work for Javed, another
gang leader.
- He says “He says I do anything Javed
asks”
- He points a gun at Jamal’s head and
threatens him: “I am number 1 now...
“ “The man with the colt 45 (a type of
gun) says “Shut up”

21. CONFLICT
-> Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces.
-> A story is not a real story without a conflict. There must
be some kind of a problem for the action to develop.
-> Conflict is one of the most important elements of
stories as it causes the action. Without a conflict, the plot
would not be realistic.

23. TO SUM UP…
-> Why does Balram wants to become a master? And why
does he killed his master?
-> What do you think the film is saying about the
globalization of culture through media? We see the game
show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” adapted in the
Indian culture. Is this a sign of progress? Why or why not?
What is this film saying about the effect of
money on culture?