Losing and finding my religion

Film review: Life of Pi

MANILA, Philippines - Directed by Ang Lee, Life of Pi is a wonderful adaptation of Yann Martel’s Man Booker prize-winning novel. More than just a sheer visual delight as the trailer would suggest, the castaway-animal tale is a heart-tugging, potent examination of the meaning of faith, survival and accepting one’s fate. Touted as a strong bet to be among the nominees for this year’s Oscars for Best Film, Director and Cinematography, the film takes some liberties with the novel, but stays true to the multi-layered message of the book. Kudos to Ang Lee for bringing the story to life, as it was a novel that most would have felt could never be brought to the big screen in a justifiable way.

To structure the story as a film, we open with a journalist seeking out a grown-up Pi (Irrfan Khan from The Namesake), a Comparative Religion college professor in Canada. We’re taken back to Pi’s childhood in India, how his father owned a zoo and how, when things went bad, the decision was made to close the zoo and migrate to the US with some of the animals. Of course, we all know that an accident at sea occurs, and the teenage Pi (now played by Suraj Sharma) escapes the wreck on a lifeboat with a tiger named Richard Parker, an orangutan, a hyena and a zebra as his only fellow survivors.

The section of the film that details Pi’s childhood, his fascination with religion and faith — whether Hindu, Catholic or Moslem, and his coping with a name derived from the French word for a swimming pool, “piscine,” is a sheer delight. It’s an integral part of what makes the film so much more than a human-animal story like say, The Black Stallion. When you factor in that unlike a horse which has been domesticated, we are treated to a Bengal tiger who will always be vicious adversary to man, we also elevate the story to something akin to a parable or allegory.

We mentioned a potential Oscars Cinematography nomination, and the CGI’s in the film are unbelievable. The heightened vistas of nature turn hallucinatory as the story progresses. I understand that Sharma never had to film a scene with an actual tiger, but Richard Parker and the other three animals on the lifeboat are pure movie magic.

A film for the stouthearted, the film does not shy from the cruel aspect of nature and the animal kingdom, neither does it shirk from the doubts and questions that faith and religion will always raise. True to the book, the film ends in an enigmatic manner, asking us which story we prefer — making us reflect on what makes religion work, how we need parables and stories to make faith that much more real. A truly rewarding film experience that also entertains, brings us to tears and makes us ponder on what it all means.