Movie - Life of Pi
Reel-time – 127 minutes
Genre – Adventure / Drama / Fantasy
Year – 2012
Director – And Lee
Writers – David Magee
(screenplay), Yann Martel (novel)
Go watch Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi”. In 3D. As
soon as possible.
In
what is an absolute extravaganza for the eyes, the treatment takes an otherwise
difficult-to-believe story and turns it into a testament to desperation and
bravery in equal measure. All the actors playing the different ages of Piscine
Molitor (or “Pi”, as he will tell you) Patel do justice to the character; goes
without saying, it’s the actor playing the Pi-stuck-in-the-lifeboat (Suraj
Sharma) who delivers the most stellar performance. Irrfan Khan and Tabu are
both as good as ever, and so is the actor who plays Pi’s father (NSD-alumni
Adil Hussain).
For tiger-lovers, Richard Parker’s magnificence cannot be put into words - he is fiercely terrifying in some scenes and grudgingly submissive in some others, almost-humanely wistful in a few, majestically enthralling in every.
That said, Ang Lee’s subtle additions to
and subtractions from the original script (and by original I mean Yann Martel’s
book by the same name) are wonderfully easy on the eye and do nothing but add
to the overall viewing experience. The parts of the film shot in India are
exquisite, the special effects are mind-blowing (watch out for the scene with
the jellyfish and the whale) and I have neither the courage nor the words to
even begin to try to describe the brutal beauty of the thunderstorm-at-sea that
changes Pi’s life forever.
I had missed out on
watching Cameron’s “Avatar” on 3D, but this one did somewhat make up for it.
Yes, it’s THAT good.
