A truly stunning and visual epic story awaits you with the movie Life of Pi (2012), a movie directed by Ang Lee that celebrates the tenth anniversary of release later this fall. The movie is based upon Canadian writer Yann Martel‘s book Life of Pi, which was released in September of 2001.
The story of Life of Pi follows first the spiritual and metaphysical life of Piscine Molitor ‘Pi’ Patel, who is portrayed at various life stages by Gautam Belur at age 5, Ayush Tandon from age 11 to 12, Suraj Sharma from age 16 to 17, and finally Irrfan Khan as an adult. A young writer portrayed by Rafe Spall meets Pi as a middle-aged adult, requesting the telling of Patel’s life story as fodder for writing a life of the man’s epic adventure. It is there that we are first introduced to Piscine Molitor Patel as a young child from Pondicherry, India. The city has also been called Puducherry, Putucceri and Pondichéry.
We meet Pi’s family, along with the naming of Pi after a famous French swimming pool named Piscine Molitor in Paris. We see the boy grow alongside his older brother and parents, adopting the Greek letter Pi as his name to avoid bullying. Tabu portrayed Gita Patel, Pi’s mother who aids Pi’s spiritual growth through Hinduism, Christianity and then Islam as he grows. Pi’s father tries to secularize Pi in rational tradition, introducing the boy to the family’s zoo. Santosh Patel, as portrayed by Adil Hussain, forces Pi to see the Bengal tiger named Richard Parker kill a goat as a lesson to Patel’s son in the true nature of the animal. Pi’s brother, Ravi Patel, was portrayed by Ayaan Khan at age 7, Mohd. Abbas Khaleeli at age 13 to 14, and Vibish Sivakumar at age 18 to 19.
The course of Pi’s story looks first to the adolescent affection he feels for a girl named Anandi, as portrayed by Shravanthi Sainath. The hopefulness of this blossoms, until Patel family father Santosh announces the familial need to see the family’s animals and move to Canada. The family sets sail, with the animals, on a Japanese freighter destined for the family’s new homeland. A storm at sea separates Pi from his family, who survives when thrown by a sailor onto a lifeboat as the Patel family, the freighter, and many crew and animals drown in the Mariana Trench.
Pi survives in his lifeboat, first with a zebra, an orangutan, a spotted hyena and the Bengal tiger, Robert Parker. Adrift with some significant and fantastic challenges that follow, the movie affords life lessons that run the metaphysical and spiritual through a tale of survival that ultimately takes Piscine Molitor ‘Pi’ Patel to Mexico. The telling asks compelling questions through a fantastic and visually stunning epic tale that matches the underlying story to those visuals in ways that justify the presence of the visuals.
The invitation for self-reflection that is presented to the audience, cleverly and with immense satisfaction for this reviewer, brings an uplifting conclusion to a journey appreciated. The sadness that begins the journey, when moving to the lifeboat, is the hardest turn. I grant Life of Pi as directed by Ang Lee 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Matt Lynn Digital 