A piece of me lies in this story, quite a big piece I would say. There was a time when I was completely religious , that was when I was a kid , when an enamoured me used to sit besides my mom and my grandmother and listen the tales of great mythological warriors from the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Krishna and Ram were my childhood heroes (but Batman was always ahead on my list). Teenage crept in soon and religiousness found its way out, but it was sadly replaced my mild atheism. Mild because I still used to remember god during exams and when results were near. Then slowly spirituality crept in at the dusk of nineteen (Had some really bad personal experiences). If you are a person like the past me, this is a movie that will re-instil your faith in GOD so read it very carefully and people who have faith you are going to enjoy it.
“This story will make you believe in God, ” an middle-ages PI or Piscine Molitor Patel, a man with sadness in his eyes tells Raffe Spall, a blocked novelist following a tip on a tale too good not to write about (and, perhaps, too good to be true.), making some lunch in his nondescript Canadian home. Their conversation seems superfluous, even a little tedious in contrast to actually watching the young Pi’s harrowing tale play out . The first enchantment is the town of Pondicherry, a former French colony in southern India that looks like paradise on Earth, nowhere more so than at the zoo run by the father of young Pi. The nimble and faithful script by David Magee (Finding Neverland) packs a good deal of character and cultural background into the first half-hour, humorously sketching the odd watery and mathematical implications of the protagonist’s name; neatly relating his unconflicted adoption of Hinduism, Christianity and Islam at age 12; portraying the warm family life he enjoys with his parents and older brother; and topped off with a taste of budding first love. Despite the extraordinary premise and literary playfulness, one reads Life of Pi not so much as an allegory or magical-realist fable, but as an edge-of-seat adventure. When the ship in which 16-year-old Pi and his zookeeping family are to emigrate from India to Canada sinks, leaving him the sole human survivor in a lifeboat on to which barge a zebra, a hyena, an orang-utan and a bedraggled, seasick tiger, Pi is determined to survive the impossible. "I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen every day." And Lee describes with such convincing immediacy, seasoning his screenplay with zoological verisimilitude and survival tips about turtle- fishing, solar stills and keeping occupied (the lifeboat manual notes that "yarn spinning is highly recommended"), that disbelief is suspended, like Pi, above the terrible depths of the ocean. And this is just the beginning, watch the movie for the rest.
Life of Pi is something of a beautiful ordeal, a film brimming with lush imagery as well as a sense of new-agey enlightenment that constantly swings between misty (and perhaps even hollow) to deeply resonant. It’s a film that that aspires to the very loftiest of heights and, by the end, doesn’t quite succeed. Still, beneath everything, the heart of the story - the boy, the boat, and the tiger - manages to outshine the movie’s desperate desire to be great. I now identify myself as being spiritual. Rather than being religious and perhaps I am not the only one who would after seeing this movie. But there is a lot of confusion regarding the two terms. But can they be used interchangeably? I don’t think so so. True spirituality is something that is found deep within oneself. It is your way of loving, accepting and relating to the world and people around it. It cannot be found in a church or a temple or a mosque. Can it? I’ll leave you to ponder on that.
Verdict : A must watch!!!
Concluding this with a Alfred Tennyson quote
“Who trusted God was love indeed/And love Creation’s final law/Tho’ Nature red in tooth and claw/With ravine shriek’d against his creed”
PS: Movie has not yet seen a India release. But it has been released during the new yprk film festival which was held earlier this week. Somehow stumbled upon it on piratebay. Hail torrents (I am not an advocate of piracy though)
Comments and Criticism are welcome,
Regards,
SlightlyDrunk