While travelling from India to Canada on a Japanese cargo
ship, which is transporting animals from a zoo in Pondicherry and the Patel
family who own them, there is a violent storm and the ship sinks. Fortunately, Pi (Suraj Sharma) is thrown
into a lifeboat and is saved. Unfortunately, there’s a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan
and a Bengal tiger on board with him. The numbers soon dwindled and Pi is left
alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean just trying to survive and to
stay out of the way of the tiger.
So, I’m going to be really annoying and just say it: I
prefer the book. I know it’s not really fair to compare books and films because
they tell stories in different ways and with different degrees of interaction
from the reader/viewer, but still. It could just be that I’ve read the book
quite a lot and I really do love it, and so I’m finding it hard to separate my
love for everything that happens in the book to what actually happens in the
film. I’m not saying it strayed massively away from the book (there are only a
couple of things I can think of that are missing or different) but it was a
completely different experience. The book draws you into the panic and the
devastation and the endless nothingness that Pi goes through during his time at
sea, and so when he has brief moments of relief or happiness you really do feel
it with him. This was definitely lacking in the film, I felt no real connection
with Pi. That’s not a slight against Suraj Sharma, he was very good
and I hope he’ll be in more things. There was just something missing for me.
The shots were beautiful and Suraj Sharma did a great job of
keeping me interested in his character. It was a good film. All I’ll say is,
read the book.
