From
the moment we see Pi and Richard Parker in the lifeboat, along with a
zebra, hyena, rat and Orangutan, the film takes on a life of its own.
Leading up to that point seems too long and tedious but the middle of
the film is a huge payoff. The next 90 minutes up to and including the
meerkats is almost sheer magic even in its violent moments. Though the
film is rated PG it should have been PG-13 as some of the violence of
the survival of the fittest can become nightmares for young children.
Some of the scenes will be hard to watch even for animal lovers though
it shows nature not only in all its good but in its horror, too.

The
story opens with a middle aged Pi, Irrfan Khan, telling a writer, Rafe
Spall, of how he got his name as a young boy, played by Ayush Tandon,
and the story of the teenage Pi, Suraj Sharma, being shipwrecked, losing
his family and all his possessions and his survival. The middle aged Pi
tells the writer what he has experienced which the latter is a little
skeptical as most people are. The film roams around the subject of
religions and seems to be the main thrust of the screenplay by David
Magee but is forgotten in the spectacle presented in the mid section of
the movie.

Suraj
Sharma is new to films and does an adequate job but he doesn’t stand a
chance when on screen with the animals. Irrfan Khan brings the needed
gravitas but also is helpless with an image of thousands of flying fish,
or a whale jumping with a starry night behind him, lingering in the
mind of the audience.

“Life
of Pi” must be seen on a big screen and in 3D. or otherwise you will
miss the splendor of Ang Lee, Claudio Miranda and what is called
‘special effects’ today using CGI.