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One of the movies that made me rethink my faith on religion is Life of Pi. Life of Pi tells the story of how a young boy survived at sea with a tiger for 227 days. 

Theatrical Poster

The film starts with a novelist talking to Pi Patel, an Indian immigrant living in Canada. Pi Patel's father named him Piscine Molitor after a swimming pool in France. Because of his name, he was teased at school as "Pissing Patel" so he decided to change his name to Pi. In order for everyone to recognize him as Pi, everytime he was asked to introduced his name to class, he will tell everyone that his name is Pi and give them the mathematical value of it. In a flashback it was shown that his family owned a zoo, and he took a great interest on animals, especially on a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Pi was raised as a Hindu and a vegetarian. He was introduced to Christianity and Islam at the age of 12 and started following the three religion saying that "he just wants to love God". His mother was very supportive to him unlike his father who wants to convert him in his father's rationalist way of thinking.

At the age of 16, Pi's father decides to move the family to Winnipeg, Canada and sell all the zoo animals. They boarded a Japanese freight ship. One night a storm struck the ship while at sea. This causes the ship to sink. Pi was trying to go back to where his family were to save them but was thrown into a lifeboat by a crew. Pi watches as the ship sunk under the waters. After the storm, he finds himself in the lifeboat with an injured zebra, orangutan and a hyena. The hyena kills the zebra and the orangutan. The tiger, Richard Parker, kills the hyena and tries to lunge at him making Pi, stay at the edge of the boat. Richard Parker eats the dead animals at night. Pi finds a survival guide, and follows its instructions. He took the biscuits, water supply, and a hand axe. He built a raft to maintain a safe distance from the tiger. Pi begun fishing and was able to feed the tiger. He also collects rain water for the two of them to drink. When the tiger jumps off to catch fish, he initially intended for the tiger to drown, but he decided to help it climb back into the boat. At one point, Pi loses all his supplies because of a breaching whale. He then decides to train the tiger to accept him into the boat. He also realizes that caring for the tiger is keeping him alive. 

Weeks later, they reach a mysterious island of edible plants, supporting a mangrove jungle, fresh water pools and a large population of meerkats. Both Pi and Richard Parker, eat and drink freely to regain their strength. But at night, the island becomes a dangerous environment. The freshwater pools become acidic digesting all the dead fish that died in the pools, Richard Parker heads back to the boat and Pi stayed with the meerkats above the trees. He found out that the island was carnivorous when he saw a human tooth in one of the lotus like leaves. The next day, they left the island.
The boat eventually reaches the shore of Mexico. Richard Parker immediately headed to the forest, leaving Pi behind. Pi was crushed because Richard Parker didn't acknowledge him before disappearing. Pi was rescued and was brought into a hospital. Insurance agents for the Japanese freight ship arrived to interview him. They didn't believe his story and asked what "really" happened. He tells an alternative story of human brutality, in which Pi was adrift on a lifeboat with his mother, a sailor with a broken leg, and the ship's cook, who killed the sailor and Pi's mother and cut them up to use as bait and food. In a later struggle, Pi's mother pushes him to safety on a smaller raft, and the cook stabs her as she falls overboard. Later, Pi returns, takes the knife and kills the cook.
In the present day, the novelist notes the parallels between the two stories: the orangutan was Pi's mother, the zebra was the sailor, the hyena was the cook, and Richard Parker, the tiger, was Pi himself. Pi asked the novelist which story he prefers, the novelist chooses the one with the tiger as it is the "better story" as to which Pi responded, "And so it goes with God.". Pi gives the novelist a copy of the insurance report. The novelist sees that the agents wrote that Pi somehow survived 227 days at sea with a tiger implying that the insurance agents also chose the more fantastic story.

One of the Remarkable scenes

The movie itself is very deep. Even up to now, I am quite puzzled as to which events really happened. The movie aims to let the viewer decide for themselves on what to believe, just like in Inception. Anyway, what I really liked about this film is the fact that Pi was able to follow 3 different religious beliefs. It only shows that, these three can co-exist. I also liked the fact that Pi was open to the different belief system of each religion and was ably to live it. I also commend the movie for its very eye appealing graphics. I think the movie, made a good adaptation of the book. It retained the story and didn't change much.

                                                                          Film Trailer

Life of Pi was based on a book by Yann Martel. The film received 11 nominations and won 4 awards including best director for Ang Lee in the 85th Academy Awards.