Life of Pi

Technology at its best: A visual bliss!

 

Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, an adventure film based on Yann Martel’s novel of the same title is one of its own kind movies, with a thorough visual bliss!

                It is a story of Piscine, a boy named from a Parisian swimming pool, and self nicknamed as Pi, inhabiting in Pondicherry with a family that owns a zoo. The family soon starts sailing to Canada in plans to shift home, with a host of exotic animals, where a storm shipwrecks them leaving behind Pi and a Bengal Tiger as survivors in the Pacific Ocean. Screenplay runs in flashbacks as Pi, now older, narrates his life since childhood and the deadly ocean adventure he had once been through.

                The film deals with multiple themes including the religion-spirituality Vs logic-reality conflict, belief in God and then the grand ocean adventure. Now the most amazing part of the story is the survival strategies applied by Pi, not just against beating the difficulties of living in the ocean, but the mere effort of a boy to co-exist with an adult Bengal Tiger without becoming the tiger’s meal himself, for over 227 days. As fictional as this situation may sound, the survival of Pi and the tiger seems compellingly believable. The story ends abruptly though,leaving the viewer to expect something more to come but all he gets is the end credits. Ang Lee fails to add the emotional quotient that the theme demands, hence film falls just short of touching your heart, and instead leaves with just the visual pleasure.

 

            As mentioned above, the screenplay runs into flashbacks, is smooth and is just as it should have been. Make sure not to miss the introduction song where the animals of the zoo are well framed and to watch for. The Pondicherry scenes are a novelty, the swimming pool of Paris with its crystal clear water (literally), the ocean at night with coloured fish and stars are totally fascinating. These are just a handful of examples of the film’s visual brilliance; watch the film for a flood of such scenes. This is a film where the cinematography and camera are at their level best! They are easily the film’s biggest highlight. Another highlight is the make-up. Red and dark skin, marks of Ocean sickness on the boy’s body look so real that it almost gives you a feel of how it would be like there in the ocean. Music is suitable for the theme.

Instances of visual brilliance



 

 

 

              Amongst the actors, debutant Suraj Sharma as the young Pi is perfect for the role. Irfan Khan as the older Pi looks convincingly similar to Suraj Sharma and is well cast, but that bizarre accent!! The tiger and other animals, partly animated, are amusing and amazing and examples of what a spectacular job technology can do today. Adil Hussain is particularly impressive in short role of Pi’s adamant yet caring father and Tabu too is well cast as Pi’s mother, but she doesn’t have much to do.

                In the end, as mentioned repeatedly, Life of Pi, serves as a spectacle than just a film. The visual brilliance compensates for its little flaws and makes it a kind of a film that hasn’t been made before.

                In spite of having watched it on the front row, Life of Pi didn’t disappoint visually. This movie is most certainly the best 3D experience produced till date. To enhance the quality of the experience, make sure to watch it 'only' in 3D, and at a place where 3D is supposedly the best. For viewers in India, PVR would be a good option(We do not endorse any brands here).

 

Ang Lee’s Life of Pi gets a 3.5 out of 5 simply for how the film looks on the screen rather than for what the film talks about. Not many films get a high rating for just being an eye candy, Life of Pi is one of the very few. Go watch it, it can disappoint nobody.

 

 

Jab Tak Hai Jaan

                    

 

 The Grand Finale!

 

 Considering the amount of buzz this name created, Jab Tak Hai Jaan needs no introduction. This Grand Finale of late Mr Yash Chopra’s series of romantic films has certainly made history owing to the unfortunate death of its director a month prior to the film’s release. Watching the film is inevitable to almost every Indian who has been following Indian cinema for the past forty years or so, that is since Mr Chopra made his first film. Now whether he has really got it Bang On! this time is a question, but even if he hasn’t, the film’s success is apparent.

                Jab tak hai jaan, is a story of Samar (Shar Rukh Khan) in his twenties who just about manages his bread butter at London. He befriends Meera Thapar(Katrina Kaif) a rich father’s beloved daughter, and soon falls for her. Then, Samar in his late thirties is an Indian army officer in Kashmir where he meets Akhira (Anushka Sharma), a young, perky intern working for Discovery. The story unfolds by connecting the two timelines and the two women of Samar’s life. Now unlike most of Chopra’s films, the hero doesn’t take any time to convey his feeling to the girl. His films have been maturing and growing with time. Yash Chopra in his 80s recognizes the subtle changes in the life style and culture and incorporates them well in the film especially to appeal to the youth. Chopra’s previous films had characters relating their times and he does it this time too. This is the biggest strength of Yash Chopra as a director. Who would have thought of seeing characters casually smoking, abusing, kissing and having sex in a Yash Chopra film? Sorry to spill the beans, but I had to appreciate this change in his style of cinema.

                Now what this film lacks is the script. Chopra’s previous films have not necessarily been realistic, but the characters’ behaviour had been acceptable. Characters in Jab tak hai Jaan often seems to do things very synthetically without any logic. It soon turns into a story manipulated rather than a story logically etched. It uses a lot of clichés for instance road accidents at a very particular instant. Now, the 1980s audience might have accepted it, but with so much maturity coming in Indian cinema today, Jab tak Hai jaan lacks conviction in its basic script.

 

 

 

                JTHJ has been extensively shot in United Kingdom and Jammu Kashmir. Cinematographer Anil Mehta particularly does a mind blowing job with the beautiful locales of both the places. UK and London in particular has been captured best to its potential and become highlights of the film. Screenplay falters and drags the already weak script. Scenes are unnecessarily elaborated adding to the running time and soon you see the audience losing patience. The film certainly has scope to edit down a lot of matter that does nothing but increase the length of the film. Screenplay is not totally linear, yet it fails to keep any suspense from the audience. Having said that, the film does provide some really charming moments, elaborated dance numbers and decent performances.

                Jab tak hai Jaan heavily borrows from all previous Chopra films, Veer-Zara in particular. Screenplay being similar to Veer-Zara’s, it almost feels like the script writer made a modern day Veer-Zara trying his hardest to hide that from the audience.

                Lyrics, monologues and poems by Gulzar are impressive and add to the romantic appeal. AR Rahman can never be a disappointment, but he surely doesn’t give his best here. The music is functional, considering Rahman’s standards. Wonder when we will get a Lagaan or a Dil se level work from him again. Choreography is apt, especially the song Ishq Shava is really well choreographed.

                Shah Rukh Khan as Samar gets to play two opposite poles of Samar’s personality. He certainly looks younger than he is, but a guy in 20s?? Man, not totally convincing. But he nails the other part as an introverted insufferable army officer. He easily is one of the most charming army officers we have seen onscreen. Katrina tries her hardest but suffers due to a badly written role. Anushka Sharma is easily the best part of the film. Her perky character, one liners and charm are the comic relief of the film. But is she getting type cast as the bubbly perky girl? We will have to wait and see.

                 

As a mark of respect for late Mr Yash Chopra and his series of romantic films, I leave Jab Tak Hai Jaan unrated. Yash Chopra is one personality who can make his films successful even posthumously. I needn’t ask you to watch it, you will watch it anyway, for Yash Chopra!     

 

Trailer: