In this review of the movie Life of Pi, I’d like to revisit unforgettable scenes
and idealism from the film. Yes, the story is full of idealism from the
original novel it was derived from, which is Yann Martel’s 2001 fantasy
adventure book and now, in the Academy Award nominee for best picture 2013 film
version. Here are some of those moments:
Lifeboat with a Tiger
This is of course where the
main plot revolves around. Pi or Piscine Molitor Patel was washed away into the
vast ocean after surviving the sunken Japanese cargo vessel Tsimtsum. His
parents and older brother were dead along with the entire crew of the ship as
well as the Patel family’s zoo animals. They used to run a zoo in Puducherry,
once a French occupied territory in India. France returned the state back to
India and the Patel family was one of the first to take advantage of it.
Unfortunately, the zoo land belongs to the government and so they renounced the
Patel family ownership of it. The Patels decided to sail away to America and
sell the animals to start anew in a foreign land after the zoo property was
ceased by their local state.
Pi was saved by the bell. His
adventurous attitude brought him up on the ship’s deck to view lighting as it
madly displayed its power. Water subdued the ship too fast that everyone
sleeping had no time to escape. The lifeboat was released too early with only
Pi aboard along with some animals. Problem is, Richard Parker, a Bengal Tiger
whose original name “Thirsty” was mistakenly exchanged for a man’s name was
surprisingly aboard the boat too. The tiger had always been called thus
afterwards. There were also other animals; a hyena, zebra, and later on an
orangutan. The hyena killed both the zebra and the monkey (who sailed towards
the boat floating on a pile of banana fruits) but it was killed by Richard
Parker afterwards. Only the tiger and Pi remained on the boat.
3 Religions
Due to his curiosity, Pi
discovered two other religions besides his native land’s Hinduism. These were
Christianity and Islam, which he had both embraced. Throughout the film, he had
switched praying from one God to another such as thanking Vishnu for leading
him to Christ and then taking the form of a fish to save both him and the
hungry tiger aboard the boat. He was also amazed by God’s grace and love by
sending His own son to die and pay the penalty of our sins and was in awe of
Christianity. He had also identified himself as a Muslim on the other hand due
to the peace that the religion brings during prayer at specific times
throughout the day. It was also mentioned in the film that he practiced Jewish
traditions too.
McGyver Style
Amazing how Pi built a
makeshift raft from wood planks of the boat just by reading a survival kit he
found from the boat’s hidden compartment. His first raft was destroyed by a
giant whale swimming upwards from deep beneath the water. Pi had even added a
shade into his raft, which also functions as a sail from the boat’s tent cover.
Using the survival kit’s pages, he had also filled out an entire diary of
experiences at sea day by day until his pencil no longer had lead. This booklet
was eventually washed away by strong storm winds the way his messages were sent
sailing through sealed, empty food cans. But no help came.
Enchanting and Alluring
The closest to being rescued was
the presence of a ship which missed them despite flare shots sent up in the
air. They also came across an enchanted island which allured them. It was
filled with mangrove trees with roots all over the island. There was also a
refreshing pond in the middle amidst the company of meerkats. But the place was
full of bones with even a man’s tooth found inside a fruit. Pi discovered that
the island is sort of cannibalistic so he left without leaving behind the tiger
that he can easily call upon through a whistle. The island’s shape appeared to
be like that of a dead man lying down.
Floating all over the ocean,
it was also enchanting and alluring. At one point, both boy and tiger were
already hallucinating probably due to fatigue, thirst, starvation, and
deprivation of sleep. Still on enchanting scenes of the sea, there were various
sea animals all around including jelly fish glowing in the dark, dolphins
jumping up and down, and fishes caught which had taught Pi to eat raw fish, ala
sashimi. Hindus normally don’t eat meat and aboard the boat earlier on the film,
his family found a companion with a Buddhist sailor who doesn’t partake of meat
too. He taught them how to eat rice with gravy.
The whole adventure was almost
unbelievable especially for investigators who wanted to know what happened to
the ship. Pi didn’t know why it sunk but he remembered the entire ordeal over
the sea. Bananas don’t float and there was no enchanted island for the Japanese
men who debriefed Pi so he made a more believable version. He simply summed it
all up from the moment that all animals were killed and only the tiger remained.
The hyena symbolized the ship’s cook, who killed the zebra (the young Buddhist
sailor), and then the mother orangutan (supposedly Pi’s mom) but was soon
devoured by the tiger (Pi). He never read the report but the writer did when Pi
allowed him have a look of it. The two Japanese men actually used the original
unbelievable version of the story for their report.
Pi Equals 3.14…
Smart as he always was, Pi
devised a way to make everyone stop teasing him with “pissing” due to his name
Piscine. It was actually derived from a French pool his dad found enlightenment
from. It was in the same pool where he had learned how to swim through his
uncle who can effectively swim due to his unique physique; he had a huge torso
and slender legs.
Going back to Pi, he had
introduced himself voluntarily in front of the class during school opening. No
one seriously believed him and still called him Pissing Patel until he wrote
the entire mathematical “Pi” on a board during the last class for the day, which
was geometry. Although we normally represent Pi simply as 3.14, the complete
numerical value is actually long. It occupied almost three black boards when Pi
wrote it.
Love Story
It was the same wit which
earned him the interest of a love interest. Substituting as a drum player for
young girls practicing in a religious dance, he asked what a specific dance
movement meant for one of the girls since she was the only one who had
demonstrated it. It looked like two half open palms clasped together,
resembling a flower. She said it was the lotus which symbolized several things
in the Hindu religion. Since then, the two had become close but he didn’t even
said goodbye when they left to sail. He eventually married in Canada years after
the whole boat drama. He landed on a Mexican beach with Richard Parker, then
saved by locals, and then debriefed by Japanese investigators due to an
insurance claim.
Understanding Animals
Richard Parker too didn’t even
said goodbye after walking ahead of a weak Pi at the Mexican shores mentioned
above. The tiger paused for a moment; Pi was hoping it would look back at him,
but never did and disappeared into the thick bushes to vanish from Pi forever. But
Pi still believed that animals have souls as Hindus teach this despite his
dad’s protestations due to an experience earlier in life when he was ill and
was never healed by healers but got well through science via medicines and
hospitals. He disagreed with his father’s notions saying that your gaze will
only bounce back when looking at animal’s eyes. For Pi, there was more than a
reflection of his face in the animal’s eye. He was certain that there is
something there.
But Pi was still careful in
the presence of Richard Parker because he almost lost a limb when he was young
and they were still at the zoo. He once attempted to feed the Bengal tiger meat
from his own hands. His father swiftly saved him and showed both him and his
brother a lesson they will never forget. A live goat was tied between narrow
bars keeping Richard Parker. The tiger slowly walked towards his prey and
pulled the goat inside to fit between the bars.
The same tiger, when with him
on the boat showed territorial claim. Pi tried to subdue him by training based
on what he had learned from the survival kit so he could have a share of the
boat when his raft was eventually washed away. One, to associate sea waves’
movement with a whistle and in turn use the whistle to establish his authority
over the animal. It was hilarious that when Pi peed at the middle section of
the boat to create a division which would separate their assigned areas at the
boat, the tiger peed back to his face. He was finally able to exercise power
over the animal through food. Fishes abound on the sea including a swarm of
flying fish and tunas swimming after them. These he used to bribe the animal
with a stick to command him towards its designated spot.
Castaway
Both book and movie have
similarities with the 2000 hit film Castaway because of the adventure on sea except
that a majority of events took place on a life boat in Life of Pi instead of a
deserted island. Both showed sea adventures and are similarly highly awarded
with good reviews. Life of Pi is nominated in three categories for Golden Globe
including Best Picture – Drama and Best Director as well as 11 for the Academy
Awards including Best Picture, Best
Director, Best Visual Effects,
and Best Adapted Screenplay. Ang
Lee, the same director who brought Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon had transformed what was seemingly impossible to convert from
book to film in Life of Pi.
Quotable Quotes
Adult Pi: Faith is a house with many rooms.
Writer: But no room for doubt?
Adult Pi: Oh plenty, on every floor. Doubt is useful;
it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your
faith.
Adult Pi: I suppose in the end, the whole of life
becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a
moment to say goodbye.
Pi: Above all: don't lose hope.
More about the film here:
Cast and Characters
Suraj Sharma as 16
years old Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel
Irrfan Khan as adult
Pi (a familiar face due to several TV shows and guestings)
Ayush Tandon as 13 years old Pi
Gautam Belur as 5 years old Pi
Tabu as Pi's mother
Gita Patel
Adil Hussain as Pi's
father Santosh Patel
Vibish Sivakumar as Pi's 18 years old older brother Ravi
Patel
Mohamed Abbas Khaleeli as 15 years old Ravi
Ayan Khan as 7 years old Ravi
Shravanthi Sainath as Pi's teenage girlfriend Anandi
Andrea Di Stefano as
the Priest
Gérard Depardieu as
the Cook on the ship
Po-Chieh Wang as the Taiwanese Sailor
Rafe Spall as the
Writer who interviewed Pi throughout portions of the film
Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/LifeofPi
Official Trailer
There you have it, a long
narrative review of the movie Life of Pi which
I hoped you enjoyed reading!
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