Life of Pi: Book, Movie, and story review

The first time I watched the movie Life of Pi, I was spellbound by the visuals but understood nothing of the message of the story.

So I watched it again, trying to decipher its message and understood some of it but not to my level of satisfaction. Hence after maybe a third watch I took myself to the Novel by Yann Martel. What follows, is my observarion of the book and movie, and an attempt to review both of them together.

The Book

Yann Martel has done a great job in detailing the world and persona of the titular character Piscine Molitor Patel. His narrations and explanations will give you interesting details about the world of the wilds. He starts slow, setting the firm stage for the story with Pi, the protagonist, explaining a variety of animals. This may seem boring to some, but to me it was more interesting and informative than days’ worth of Animal Planet or NatGeo. It is after the wreck of Tsimtsum that the story really grips your mind. The book details into Pi’s struggle for survival way more than the movie. The loneliness that Pi faced in his early days on the lifeboat is not very noticeable in the movie, but stares you into eyes like the tiger when you’re reading. The book also ventures into philosophy, although briefly, and it’s insightful. It is indeed a great piece of work.

The Movie

Ang Lee, with this movie, has climbed into my list of favorite directors. Let me be frank: I love the movie more than the book, and many will disagree. But the movie is a treat to eyes, and of course also ears. There are scenes in the movie that I adore very much. One is the scene with the whale, and the other where Pi reminisces about the zoo and the life he left behind – conveyed through brilliant CGI. The music tracks are the soul of the film. The film is unable to show Pi’s struggle for survival very effectively, but delves deep into his feelings, about his past and towards the God he loves. Facing a limitation of time, the film has cut out a few things from the original story; but it does not fail to convey the message, I’m sure.

The Comparison

The book and the film, although based on the same story and with the same message, are two different pieces of work. They are two different approaches to some one thing and cannot be really compared, qualitatively. Also, a twenty year amateur is not a proper person to judge any of them.

Both of them have their own style. Story takes different turns in both the works. The book does not feature Anandi, the love interest of Pi Patel. The movie speaks nothing about the conversation between Pi and Richard Parker, and Pi and his French ‘brother’. The book has more details, equally gripping as the enchanting music and visuals of the movie. Both the works are equally beautiful to witness.

The Story

I was thinking one day, being a beginning writer-poet, that what is the point of the officers that come to meet Pi towards the end of the story? Pi tells them another, realistic, story; but it doesn’t really serve any cause for the story. So why?

Then it suddenly struck me: everything in the story is a metaphor, maybe. The carnivorous island, the tiger, the animals, and pretty much everything that happens on the lifeboat. We are to Yann Martel what the officers are to Pi Patel. Maybe Martel is not telling us the REAL story; he’s just adapted it to make it interesting. I believe the tiger, or the French brother, is an aspect of Pi’s own personality. I just haven’t figured it out exactly. There are some more aspects that I still have to comprehend, or maybe I am looking into this way deeply than I am supposed to, thus ignoring the simplicity.

If you are having hard time deciding between the film and the book, I’d say don’t trouble yourself much. Go for both of them. It’ll only help you more in believing in God. And if you don’t seem to understand it really, try giving it another watch or read, like how I soon might. Because, a story is more than just the words. Audio-visuals are merely the clothes of flesh and bones it wears; it is the soul that matters really!

Shikara – Love in Exodus

The topic of Kashmiri Pandits has invited more documentaries than Bollywood Feature films. When a popular producer-director like Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and AR Rehman collaborated for a project on the topic, it was sure to catch my eye. My reaction to it, however, remains mixed.

Based on “Our Moon has Blood Clots” book by Rahul Pandita, the film has the exodus largely like a backdrop, to the lovestory of a couple (played by Aadil Khan and Sadia) caught in the storm of it. Though it may not be so, promoting a romantic film with a highly controversial lining appears like a shrewd marketing gimmick.

Significant number of actors are actual Kashmiri Pandits – including the lead couple and the mob in refugee camps. Also, almost all of the film has been shot in Kashmir.

The story has been written as well as it could be. With friend of the hero crossing sides, call from the President of USA for a visit, and hero giving up better opportunities for welfare of his people, there are ample emotional moments. Dialogues are fitting of the dilemma where one cannot discern which side is the right side. The actors too, deliver them surprisingly well for newbies. Aadil Khan, especially, makes the character of Shiv remarkably realistic. Young romance of the lead couple, their journey through the turmoil, and their days in elder age – all of it is beautifully acted. The film seems to compromise nowhere.

Along with straight-forward emotional scenes, the film does not shy away from symbolic messages. The scene of a traffic jam in Patnitop where a calf is abandoned to the roadside, tries to underline that the exiled Pandits were worse off than defenceless animals. Allowing silence to speak for itself, a mark of mature filmmaking, is a brave act that the film embraces at times. Although based on a socio-political crisis, few and short political comments are made in the film. One of them is when the protagonist, Shiv, replies to the slogans of “mandir wahin banayenge”, saying “the role of a leader is to unite people, not to divide them”, and that’s about it.

AR Rehman and Qutub-E-Kripa’s musical score forces you to take note of itself, and adds to the exquisite imagery from the cinematography of Rangarajan Ramabadran. Weaved together under direction of Chopra, they create an atmosphere and spirit of Kashmir that has probably never before been conjured in Bollywood cinema, at least in recent years.

Words of Irshad Kamil, voice of Papon, are other highlights of the film. “Ae vaadi, Shehzadi,” is a heart-wrenching poem that embodies the yearning for home in the heart of every Kashmiri. The song “Mar Jaayein Hum” plays in the soulful voices of Papon and Shraddha Mishra, as the lead couple slithers through the lake-waters in a typical Kashmiri boat on their first night together. It enchants you with its melody and mood for days. I have never been obsessed with the video of any song as much as this.

I am tempted to criticize the film for not delving deeper into the politics of the Exodus and the communalisation leading up to it. But then one can only accommodate so much in a feature film who’s primary target is entertainment.

The Pandits – though a minority Kashmir – served in the beaureacracy and other previleged jobs right from the times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire. It would have been near impossible to exile their 62,000 families for life in a matter of few months. How then, did it come to pass? Real upheavals have happened behind the scenes. The Land Grants Act of 1960, the (widely perceived as rigged) State Elections of 1987, India’s foregone opportunity of using 1971 victory to armtwist Pakistan for a final solution on the issue of Kashmir, and the fire of militancy spreading as a consequence of it all, are only what appears to the eye. The film has literally one line mentions of them, and any audience that is also a student of social sciences, is left utterly disappointed. To a layman, a complicated political issue is presented as a straight-forward ethnic cleansing out of religious fanaticism. The film surprisingly tries to attribute the violence in the valley to the military ambitions of USA – completely in contrast to the expert view. This is perhaps, another exercise of artistic freedom to keep the story going.

Focusing on emotional journey of one family, the political journey of the state and unapparent causes of the exodus are ignored. Perhaps it is something that the makers deemed too crude and controversial. It was an easy choice that they made, to avoid politics in a romantic drama. Whether they acted in a socially responsible manner in making that choice, and whether the film could acommodate it or not, is a different debate.

Nevertheless, I suggest you to watch Shikara, for the artistic brilliance of it. And, whether you like the film or not, I insist that you watch the documentary “Kashmir The Story” by TimesNow (available on YouTube), for a better perspective of the political underpinnings of the crisis.

 

P. S. : Let me know of any good documentaries on the Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. Thanks!

 

P. P. S.: Here’s the mesmerising background score of Shikara!