Movie: Life of Pi
Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Suraj Sharma and Tabu
Rating: ****
“Life of Pi” is a visually enthralling and exciting piece of art. I call it a piece of art, but not a movie because it compels the audience to appreciate the brilliance of such rich imagination that’s portrayed in the film.
Ang Lee and R & H Studios have taken on the task successfully. With his work, Ang Lee is able to stimulate the different parts of our brains to make us laugh or have a nervous breakdown when seeing nature consume a ferocious feast (ship-wreck), while fall in love with the jaw-dropping beauty of digital created ocean.
The visuals are lifelike and it would be difficult to explain the difference between real and unreal, especially, in one particular scene where the lead actor, Pi has the tiger’s head on his lap.
With magnificent visuals, “Life of Pi” has added a new dimension to the art of storytelling. Also, like all human stories, the movie is based on a common set of deep-rooted emotional markers and rich spiritual sub-text. Viewers will experience a whole gamut of emotions along with the lead character – from the joy of living life while struggling to living to a will to surrender one’s life.
The story opens with Irrfan Khan (older Pi) agreeing to narrate the tale of how he survived a ship-wreck to a writer (character played by Rafe Spall). The narrative’s first act itself where Piscine Militor Patel gets his name after a French swimming pool, establishes the fact that the movie will be a sea adventure. The character of Piscine Patel is fabricated as a curious yet courageous boy who has the nerves to feed a tiger with his bare hands. Piscine persuades his entire school to call him “Pi” and discovers a love for all religions, raised as a Hindu, who later follows and respects Christianity and Islam equally.
Such open-mindedness is conveyed through Lee’s work that it demands respect. The story progresses into a ship-wreck where Pi (character played by Suraj Sharma) is stranded on a life boat with animals such as Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker, a hyena, a Zebra and an orang-utan. With the Hyena killing the other animals on the boat, Lee manages to portray violence, but without a droplet of blood, and thus making the film suitable for all age-groups viewing.
Pi’s journey of fighting the sea and taming the tiger is shown as a stunningly compelling adventure. They are stranded for a mammoth 227 days until they reach a shore and Japanese authorities pick them up.
This film is an absolute visual wonder for the imaginary and creative but frustrating and long for the practical and prosaic.
