LIFE OF PI – WORTH LIVING THROUGH !!!!
Don’t wait for the DVD unless you have a 21 by 9 Metres Television set with inbuilt 3D !!!!!
Forget the story watch it for the incredible indelible impactful imprint left on your eyes during its 127 minute duration.
Ang Lee(Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) is a sorcerer, for the book on which this movie is based on was supposed to be “unfilmable”. Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger, weirdly named Richard Parker. Allegorically the movie adaptation too has taken many days to see the light of day. (2005 was when M.Night Shyamalan was approached to direct it !!)
Comparisons could be made to other single actor survivor silver screen shows like 127 Hours or Castaway. While these two do have emotionally richer and more accessible screenplays they don’t even come close to the transcendent sublime imagery shown in this movie. Truly Ang Lee has redefined “cool” with the effects and CGI on display.
Adapted for the screen by David Magee, the movie is framed as an extended conversation between a frustrated novelist (Rafe Spall) and the title character (played by Irrfan Khan in the framing device) — who shortened his original name Piscine (French for “swimming pool”) to avoid the taunts of his schoolmates — the narrative begins with Pi’s early years in Pondicherry, India, where his father ran the local zoo. The first act of “Life of Pi” shows him always fascinated with aspects of various religions, choosing parts of each in which to believe. Soon however a teenaged Pi (Suraj Sharma) is faced with a Titanic-like disaster and finds himself in a predicament now well known to anyone who has seen the trailers or even the posters….
Stuck on a lifeboat with a most unreliable coterie of critters, Pi’s odyssey defines the word spectacular. The second act is littered with lush imagery and richly detailed seascapes. If these scenes could be paused and framed and auctioned in Sotheby’s, I’m sure they would make enough money to fund the movie’s $70 million budget !!!!
And so onto the third and perhaps the weakest of the acts. It does not lead to a crescendo of intellectual and spiritual elation, like the book. Just bringing up God and faith and presenting them with visual style is not enough. Say something about religion. Say something about God. “Life of Pi” thinks it’s a deep meditation about faith but it’s really not. The book is infinitely richer. Seems like the filmmakers were exhausted by the time the conclusion came around. If only the themes were as deeply thought out as the visuals, this would certainly be one of the Oscar favorites. But all’s forgiven because of the “eye-gasmic” feast we have gorged on for the major part of the movie.
Also , as Ang Lee spelt out in one of his interviews, sometimes like faith, the movie works better when we believe it in our souls rather than when its spelt out on screen before us. As TIME Magazine says, “Magical realism was rarely so magical and never before so real than when you see this movie”
Acting kudos to the CGI team for the best tiger since Sherkhan, and also to the 17 year old Suraj Sharma who in his debut puts in a cracker of a performance. Note how he loses weight and changes physically as his ordeal continues.
In conclusion, if a ticket at a multiplex costs Rs. 300, this movie is worth the entire price of admission to a cinema. It is definitely worth seeing and the viewer would do absolute injustice to oneself if its not seen on a 21 X 9 meter screen with 3D glasses.
— SAUMIL BHANSHALI