Life Of Pi

ANG LEE'S - LIFE OF PI  

A Magical Mythical Cinematic Experience.

By - Lt Col D Purushothaman Pillay (Retd)

An unforgettably brilliant cinematic epic, which strikes a rare perfect balance between three dimensional visual opulence and a cerebral philosophic richness, that sends the awestruck viewer home, with a mind having answers to many existential truths, a heart ecstatic with wonder and a soul ready for an uncertain future brimming with unassailable hope.

This groundbreaking Ang Lee magnum opus is an artistic and creative David Magee adaptation of the best selling Yann Martel novel and 2002 Man Booker prize winner - "Life of Pi". An adventure of discovery set in the late seventies wherein the titular character is a Pondicherry-born Hindu teenager, strangely christened after a Parisian swimming pool, on a paternal whim, as Piscine Molitor Patel - a butt of constant ridicule, finally, only his piphilogical skills earned him the right to get it abbreviated to a more respectable 'Pi'. He is stranded on a life boat with Richard Parker a Royal Bengal Tiger in the middle of the Pacific. That fate befell on them in the course of their truncated voyage to Canada; where his father, a zoo owner was planning of relocate with family and all the animals. But then destiny had other designs and 'Tsimtsum' the Japanese cargo ship they were voyaging in capsized in a tropical storm near the Mariana Trench. The rest of the film chronicles the travails of the castaway survivors of the shipwreck; of which finally only Pi and Parker survive the ordeal to run aground enduring over 200 days of tumultous adventure pendulating between hopeless agony and envigourating ecstasy on the rough high seas.

Ang Lee's innate ability to tug at the heartstrings of human emotional interaction and have them sink deep into the viewer's consciousness as experienced in both 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' and 'Brokeback Mountain' has transcended a new dimension here; wherein he established versimilitude in the unbelievable interaction between a shipwrecked teenager and a hungry tiger with credible alacrity.

The 127 minute long saga is structured into three loose segments. The introductory portion, which I found most entertaining, delves into the early life of Pi with his family in Pondicherry, including his views on religion, which was an esoteric juvenile amalgamation of Hindu, Christian and Muslim faiths. The segment ends 45 minutes into the story with the shipwreck. The most important and longest, more than an hour long, second segment tracks the journey of difficulties traversing the ocean to civilisation. The final 20 minutes and perhaps a tad disappointing segment has Pi recounting his story from a hospital bed offering an inexplicable alternative re-interpretation of events, for the benefit of two investigators from the Japanese shipping company. All these segments are strung on the intermittent interactions of Irffan Khan the middle-aged Pi in modern-day Canada narrating his story to Rafe Spall a writer looking to author Pi's biography.

Ang Lee seems to have pulled off the impossible by cracking the code of this "unfilmable" story; rumoured to have been abandoned by many reputed Hollywood geniuses, like M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuarón and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, as impossible; and that too in 3D, with so much aplomb. So what, if it took a four year slog to accomplish the inconceivable. I am not particularly a fan of 3D movies, but to me, Life of Pi was different because Lee and Cinematographer Claudio Miranda harness the incredible marvel of cutting edge computer graphics and animation technology to spawn a beautiful roller coaster of sheer visual delight of the wonders of the sea world. They created some unforgettable vignettes that have permanently etched themselves in my memory, like for instance the opening credits when the camera actually wanders the zoo bewitchingly capturing the allure of the grace of a bevy of animals like zebras, pythons, elephants and an assortment of apes with an occasional hovering bird which tantalizingly flies above our heads; one cant stop marveling at the shot of a playful whale breaching the dark of the night in a luminescent purple splash; the frightful aerial locomotion of the flying shoals; the carnivorous floating meerkat infested island; and the most marvelous night ocean skyscape. All this visual treat coming with the accompaniment of the genius of composer Mychael Danna's sombre yet melodic oriental score raises the experience to an altogether different high. Newcomer Suraj Sharma, as the marooned castaway battling the odds, Irffan Khan as the midlle-aged Pi, Richard Parker the Tiger and the turbulent ocean setting; excel in their parts to give flesh and substance to the riveting narrative. Adil Hussain as the father and Rafe Spall the writer add texture, with their supporting performances.

In its soul, the quite uncomplaining resignation with which Pi accepts his fate, has an almost didactic reflection of the biblical Job; which begets a poignant spiritual question as to "Why do the righteous suffer?" It is a gorgeous monodrama of the resilience of human spirit of survival against all odds, with dogged faith in the Almighty.

I enjoyed the experience, notwithstanding the last quarter of an hour and the inexplicable twist at the end. The 58 year old Taiwanese-born, Ang Lee is indeed a gifted genius endowed with abundant aesthetic vision, which makes for powerful storytelling, he thereby leaves an everlasting impression on our minds. Go feast your eyes, if you haven't already. I am already looking forward to whatever he would be making next. God bless him!

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