Since its release in 2002, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi has become a modern classic, winning the Man Booker Prize and going on to sell over seven million copies worldwide.
A film adaptation should have been imminent but lots of critics dismissed the book as ‘unfilmable’ given its tricky source material. Those unfamiliar with the book might consider it to be a modern version of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea or maybe Castaway on a boat with a tiger instead of a ball.
The book is less a story ‘of Pi’ and more a book about Life and the impossible questions it can pose to us regarding our religious beliefs, faith and survival. Through the curious eyes of a 16-year-old boy called Pi, these questions and answers are queried in unlikely, original ways, leading ultimately to a life-defining experience out at sea with only a hyena, a zebra, an orang-utan and a Bengal tiger, called Richard Parker, for company.
The plot may seem implausible and surreal but a willingness to believe in the fantastical events that occur heightens the veracity of Martel’s prose to make it an unforgettable, awe-inspiring tale. Maybe Disney Pixar might’ve been better-placed to adapt such premise as an animation. Old man travels the world in a floating house; toys come to life to reunite with owner; superhero family come out of hiding to save the world… boy finds himself with an assortment of wild animals on a boat in the Pacific Ocean? Not worlds apart from what we’ve come to expect from the innovative film company.
Instead the project was announced with Crouching Tiger… and Brokeback Mountain director, Ang Lee, at the helm. It has taken exactly 10 years for someone to bring Martel’s story to life and naturally fans of the book have flocked to the cinema to see how the important philosophical and spiritual themes have been translated on screen.
Pi’s investment in a divine understanding is a fleeting reference in the film. What separates the earthbound from those more spiritually-elevated is heavily explored in the book but only during the contextual introduction and at desperate moments during Pi’s voyage in the film. Without a narrator giving us a constant update on his deep stream of consciousness, the journey we are invited on becomes less of a spiritual one but more literal. The book relies minimally on dialogue, hence the need for a way into Pi’s thoughts. His monologues, however, are well-edited, effective and give us just enough insight into the mind of the protagonist of a tale not intended for the cinema.
These so-called ‘thinking films’ are rarely known to lend themselves to blockbuster special effects yet the film has been hailed as having ground-breaking visuals on par with those of Avatar. It’s certainly a pretty film to watch with its colourful opening sequences in French India and generally polished visuals throughout; rightfully earning a ‘Best Picture’ nomination at this year’s Academy Awards. But is it possible to genuinely heed this one man act with such glossy special effects?
The most frequently used scene in the clips and trailers to promote the film is the one where a whale jumps over Pi’s boat. This doesn’t happen in the book but it has become one of the iconic images from the film. In an attempt to appeal to a wider audience through special effects and ‘action’, a certain authenticity and accuracy surrounding the film adaptation has been sacrificed.
Richard Parker’s strong on-screen presence and his forged relationship with Pi is the real success of the film and the most important element of the adaptation to get right. From the moment he bursts onto the screen, audience members are immediately made wary of his presence, adding another dimension to this epic tale of survival.
The film may have only had modest takings at box offices around the world but with 11 Oscar nominations, there is no doubt that the film is a fine technical achievement if not a commercial one. Talks of an Indian version of the film have since emerged and maybe this will give rise to an edgier adaptation, perhaps one that uses more of Martel’s text and is more religiously-orientated.
Life of Pi was never meant to be a perfect adaptation of the much-loved book but with its array of visual delights, effective sequences of succinct dialogue and an intelligent edit, it is a film of significant merit, full of ambition and the thought-provoking ideas taken straight from Martel’s award-winning text. Belief is a key theme in Life of Pi and by the end you will believe that expert story-telling and imaginative film-making are more alike than previously thought.
Nirankar Phull