Life of Pi – Movie Review

TNI Bureau: “Life of Pi” seems to be Oscar-winning Taiwanese-born American filmmaker Ang Lee’s best work till date as the film has earned Rs 3.5 crore on an opening day in India. The film could be considered as a masterpiece despite strong competition with the much-awaited film, “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2”.

The movie was released in 2D and 3D format in four Indian languages – English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The film director, who takes the credit for the films such as “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994),”Sense and Sensibility” (1995), “Crouching Tiger”, “Hidden Dragon” (2000), “Hulk” (2003), and “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), is the first from Asian to win the Best Director Oscar.

Veteran writer Yann Martel’s novel “Life of Pi” narrates the story of a boy who is aimless at sea on a boat with a Royal Bengal tiger after his family is drowned in a massive storm. The boy (Suraj Sharma) is a 16-year-old Piscine Molitor Patel, who is also called as Pi. He was living with his parents in Pondicherry. They own a zoo. The family decided to move to Canada with their animals on a ship. But Pi’s life was scattered after they faced a storm in which he lost all his family members. Pi  and the tiger named Richard Parker are the only survivors in the disaster.

The story is narrated by grown up Pi (Irrfan Khan) to a visitor how he saved himself from the ferocious tiger. He talks about his experiences, adventures and how he felt the presence of Almighty on that boat during adversity. Spending over 200 days on boat with tiger, he also embraced Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. The film raises few vital questions about life, death, faith and truth.

Through the film, Lee wants to make his audience realise the fact of life, which is completely complex in the modern time. The film is purely called a masterpiece, which may inspire all ages of people.

Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain, Tabu
Director: Ang Lee
Genres: Adventure
Rating: ****