Life of Pi – Food for Soul

Watching Life of Pi was absolutely a different experience from others. Ever since I’ve heard of this movie, watched its trailer, visited its website, inquired about it on Wiki; I was super sure this is NOT the one to be missed. 

Generally whenever am up for a movie, I make sure that I watch it ASAP. My love for movies always made things smoother for me. But things were not that same with “LoP”. I got to watch it two weeks later after it hit the big screen. And I must say the growing interest about the movie, as well as about the story of Mr. Piscine Molitor Patel have added to the rising excitement within me.

The movie was undoubtedly living its tag line “Journey of a Life Time”; but I would like to add “Food for Soul” with it. The story is so well composed that it would certainly help you in growing up as a human. And I would certainly dare to comment that had it not been a story from an Indian origin, this would not have the charm and aura it is having now. 

I’ve not read the book, and I think that had added to my liking and interest towards the movie. Because I personally believe, a film can never be as good as a book. A book can enrich you more than one way; however, a movie stays in an advantageous position because of its visual attires. But it’s a total turn-off if you find the movie not visually alluring enough in accord to the images you have woven in your mind.

Nevertheless, I would certainly say, the 3D effects were not up-to-the mark as they should have been; with such a beautiful story that gives you so much of a scope to make an extraordinary illustration, Ang Lee could have made it better. But the lack of 3D effects that seldom makes a sudden adrenaline flow; the story is reason enough you would happily pass this deficiency.

I will not discuss the story of Pi, as you must have gone through a lot of variants of that already; rather I would like to share what I have learnt from it….

For me, the story is about “having faith in ‘faith’”. Be it the regular shift from one religion to another of the protagonist, or his out-of-this-world relation with Richard Parker (the Royal Bengal tiger), or his struggle through the sea to land, or the un-jolted belief in God that he had since childhood; all these are nothing but his faiths. 

His faith in friendship - his faith in himself - and above all his faith in GOD. This is his faith that had helped him to survive and help Richard Parker survive through the bedlam in the sea. And last but not the least, the faith of the burned-out writer - Rafe Spall, who had shown his faith in Pi’s story. As a stranger he could have let it pass easily; but his faith on the tale helped us to believe it as well.

I am no one to judge Ang Lee’s direction or Yann Martel’s writing. So, I’d not go in that zone at all. All I can say is Life of Pi achieves the near impossible; presenting a story which is impervious to present in a movie set-up. It's an astonishing technical achievement that's also emotionally rewarding. Don’t dare to miss it!!