Directed by : Ang Lee
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454876/
A writer comes to meet Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan) to get some story from his life that is adventurous and would make him believe in God. And so Pi Patel begins narrating his story from childhood when he lived with his family in Pondicherry.
The first sequence is well done montage of zoo, comprising of almost every animal. The first of many visual delights in the movie.
Earlier part of screenplay deals with how Pi Patel got his nickname Pi, the fun fellow classmates would make at his full name 'Piscine' and how he would try to get through them. The urge to follow every religion, which compels Pi's father telling him that 'If you believe in everything, you will end up not believing in anything at all'.
Adil Hussain as Pi's father and Tabu as his mother are excellent in their performances though Tabu gets very less dialogue scenes, Adil has some of best lines in the movie specially the one where he tells Pi that Richard Parker (the tiger) doesn't care for anything, except his food.
The most engaging part of the film begins when we move to the ship scene, the thunderstorm leading to Pi left alone on a lifeboat which has 'Richard Parker' in it too. Henceforth starts the journey of survival for Pi, not just to find food or escape any further storms but also to make sure Richard Parker gets enough food and doesn't end up eating Pi.
The struggle Pi goes through, firstly to find food, then to manage distance from Richard parker initially until they become friendly to each other, is presented with some great sea visuals. Add to it the scene where both reach a green island full of small gooses (i hope thats what they are called). For me, that whole scene was brilliant, and perhaps best of the movie. Also, the scene where Pi has to eat the food Richard Parker would eat because of no other choice, one wonderful dialogue he speaks there. And that scene where Pi takes Richard Parker on his laps, like a son in mother's laps.
All this should had made me love the film, but that doesn't happen because I felt the main character Pi (Suraj Sharma) was too loud. I was not able to like his performance at all despite having loved all the scenes that involved him. Some other actor would had done better justice to the character.
The Screenplay was pretty good, the climax does get little lengthy specially when Irrfan narrates those 2 stories but that scene had to be longer. Some of the dialogues had great humour in them, specially the Pondicherry part, or the names of both Pi and Parker. And, how real the tiger looks.. some great work by the effects team.
Another great scene in the movie was, when Richard Parker reaches near Jungle, stops and then goes through leaving Pi heartbroken. Also, the one where Irrfan (Elder Pi) tells the writer about the 2 different stories he told the cops, one was point of view of Pi and other was point of view of Richard Parker.
Irrfan Khan was much better than 'The Amazing Spiderman' in terms of accent, still wonder what the need is for him to have such accent.
In the end, Life of a Pi turned to be a Decent movie for me at the most mainly for the Pi-Parker boat sequences, direction and writing (though its adapted from a book). Visually there are many scenes to admire. Wish the leading actor for younger Pi was impressive too.
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454876/
A writer comes to meet Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan) to get some story from his life that is adventurous and would make him believe in God. And so Pi Patel begins narrating his story from childhood when he lived with his family in Pondicherry.
The first sequence is well done montage of zoo, comprising of almost every animal. The first of many visual delights in the movie.
Earlier part of screenplay deals with how Pi Patel got his nickname Pi, the fun fellow classmates would make at his full name 'Piscine' and how he would try to get through them. The urge to follow every religion, which compels Pi's father telling him that 'If you believe in everything, you will end up not believing in anything at all'.
Adil Hussain as Pi's father and Tabu as his mother are excellent in their performances though Tabu gets very less dialogue scenes, Adil has some of best lines in the movie specially the one where he tells Pi that Richard Parker (the tiger) doesn't care for anything, except his food.
The most engaging part of the film begins when we move to the ship scene, the thunderstorm leading to Pi left alone on a lifeboat which has 'Richard Parker' in it too. Henceforth starts the journey of survival for Pi, not just to find food or escape any further storms but also to make sure Richard Parker gets enough food and doesn't end up eating Pi.
The struggle Pi goes through, firstly to find food, then to manage distance from Richard parker initially until they become friendly to each other, is presented with some great sea visuals. Add to it the scene where both reach a green island full of small gooses (i hope thats what they are called). For me, that whole scene was brilliant, and perhaps best of the movie. Also, the scene where Pi has to eat the food Richard Parker would eat because of no other choice, one wonderful dialogue he speaks there. And that scene where Pi takes Richard Parker on his laps, like a son in mother's laps.
All this should had made me love the film, but that doesn't happen because I felt the main character Pi (Suraj Sharma) was too loud. I was not able to like his performance at all despite having loved all the scenes that involved him. Some other actor would had done better justice to the character.
The Screenplay was pretty good, the climax does get little lengthy specially when Irrfan narrates those 2 stories but that scene had to be longer. Some of the dialogues had great humour in them, specially the Pondicherry part, or the names of both Pi and Parker. And, how real the tiger looks.. some great work by the effects team.
Another great scene in the movie was, when Richard Parker reaches near Jungle, stops and then goes through leaving Pi heartbroken. Also, the one where Irrfan (Elder Pi) tells the writer about the 2 different stories he told the cops, one was point of view of Pi and other was point of view of Richard Parker.
Irrfan Khan was much better than 'The Amazing Spiderman' in terms of accent, still wonder what the need is for him to have such accent.
In the end, Life of a Pi turned to be a Decent movie for me at the most mainly for the Pi-Parker boat sequences, direction and writing (though its adapted from a book). Visually there are many scenes to admire. Wish the leading actor for younger Pi was impressive too.
