'Life of Pi' Defies Categorization

‘Life of Pi’ is a fable, a parable, an allegory. No, it’s not. It is the strange and improbable story of a boy trapped in a lifeboat with a ferocious Bengal tiger in the endless Pacific waters. It’s a story of survival through wit and cunning. No, it is not. It is a quest for God and meaning, love and redemption.

Take your pick because ‘Life of Pi’ has the flexibility to be whatever you want it to be. That’s its strength and its weakness, its peak and its valley. Yann Martel’s 2001 international bestseller (and the 2002 Man Booker Prize winner for fiction) was recognized at once for it ‘unfilmable’ characteristics. The bad news is that the difficulty has not diminished a bit over a decade. The good news is that the Chinese-American director Ang Lee has pulled it off, presenting us with a movie true to the book’s difficult theme and breathtaking for its 3-D images.

Piscine Molitor Patel, forced to condense his name to Pi to avoid ridicule by his schoolmates, is a restless young boy searching for a God who can infuse his life with meaning. There is more to life than “fractions and French,” he realizes. Growing up in Pondicherry in Southern India in a Hindu family, he also explores Christianity, Judaism and Islam to expand his spiritual horizon. “Faith has many rooms,” the grownup Pi (Irfan Khan) explains to a skeptical Canadian writer when recounting his remarkable story years later. “Is there a room for doubt in it as well?” asks the writer. “Of course,” replies Pi. “Faith does not become strong unless it is tested.”

Pi’s father (Adil Hussain) is the owner of a zoo stocked with exotic animals. During Indira Gandhi’s emergency rule when constitutional rights are suspended and prospects are bleak for ordinary Indians, he decides to immigrate to Canada with his family and his animals.

The Japanese cargo ship on which Pi’s father, mother and sibling are traveling sinks during a monstrous storm in the Pacific Ocean. Pi (played brilliantly by newcomer Suraj Sharma) lands on a 27-foot lifeboat but his family vanishes in the cruel and roiling waters. The animals go down as well, save for a wounded zebra, an orangutan, a vicious hyena and a rat, all ending up on the same lifeboat.

At daybreak, Pi discovers that there is yet another survivor on board (hidden temporarily from sight under a tarp), a ferocious 440-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, into whose wild eyes he had stared with morbid fascination when making the rounds in his father’s zoo in Pondicherry.

Thus begins a 227-day odyssey that pits a boy against a cat whose growls and snarls fill up space and sky. To survive, Pi builds a makeshift raft for himself, taking care to tie it to the boat so as not to drift away. He spends several days and nights on it, not daring to cross paths with Richard Parker who has dispatched the other animals according to the law of the jungle.

Ultimately, Pi decides to board the boat. Hunger and thirst has removed his fear. If death is the end, he might as well go down fighting. The symbolism is compelling, however: When Pi cuts the raft loose, is he also casting away the doubts that troubled his sensitive mind?

Pi and Parker mark their territory on the boat. Slowly, they begin to make a connection that defies reason and logic, realizing that each is doomed without the other.

Although a digital creation, Parker is a marvel of beauty and power and evokes William Blake’s haunting poem: Tyger! Tyger! burning bright/In the forests of the night,/What immortal hand or eye/Could frame thy fearful symmetry?/In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes?/On what wings dare he aspire?/What the hand dare seize the fire?

Nothing tests Pi’s faith more than raw hunger. Spirituality takes a backseat to procuring food and collecting clean water from rain. Yet it is the wild tiger that keeps the wilds of his heart at bay. The elements take on a mystical and floating translucence. Bit by bit, man and beast not only make peace but grow compassion for one another. When the boat bumps against a lush island in the middle of nowhere, Pi discovers that it is overrun with thousands of meerkats. Richard Parker need not be hungry again. Making landfall gives Pi the feeling that his ordeal is over. But it is not so. He discovers that the island is carnivorous. It is only the silent insistence of the tiger that saves him from its fatal attractions.

Eventually the boat reaches Mexico. An emaciated Pi is rescued by shore-dwellers. But Richard Parker? Without even a glance at his companion, he vanishes into the nearby jungle.

When Japanese investigators interview Pi to figure out how and why their ship went down, Pi tells them his story. They reject outright what they consider to be an absurdly fanciful tale. Besides, there is no trace of any carnivorous island anywhere in the Pacific! So Pi tells them another story, giving human shape to the animals in the boat. Perhaps the hyena was none other than the psychopathic cook who terrorized travelers on the ship before it sank. But who were the others? Was Richard Parker a stand-in for nature? The questions linger and what really happened on that boat remains an enigma.

In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway’s protagonist battles unseen adversaries gnawing away at the mighty marlin he has caught far into the sea. “Man can be destroyed but not defeated,” is how Hemingway describes his old man. The same can be said of the young Pi but here man and tiger are in such proximity and so visible that all rules are overturned. “My story will make you believe in God,” Pi tells his Canadian interlocutor but even he has to add a twist at the end to confound us with the unfathomable mystery of the seeking heart.

In other words, in almost all respects, ‘Life of Pi’ is a winner.

 

The Charm and Humanity of "English Vinglish"

“English Vinglish” is an Indian movie that is as good as, if not better than, Mira Nair’s 2001 hit “Monsoon Wedding.” But while Monsoon enthralled Americans, English Vinglish has not created much of a ripple among moviegoers. That’s a pity because this is an unforgettable story conveyed through convincing performances.

Shashi is the ideal homemaker. She loves her husband (Adil Hussain) and adores her daughter and son. Her home in the Western city of Pune is an ode to taste. By the side, she runs a catering business selling golden, sweet snack balls called “Laddoos” that her clients are willing to die for. It brings her a nice income of her own. She seems to have everything, everything but respect from her husband and daughter. Her fault? She is pathetically deficient in English.

When she mispronounces a word (“Jaaz” becomes “Jhazz”), she faces the withering scorn of her husband and contemptuous daughter. No matter how hard she tries to shower her family with  love, she cannot save herself from her fatal flaw. “My wife was born to make Laddoos,” the husband tells anyone within earshot, barely hiding his contempt.

She begins to hate herself.

One day, her sister in New York invites the family to attend her niece’s wedding. Shashi has to travel alone because her husband is in the middle of a business deal and the kids are in school. They will join her later.

At the U.S. embassy, the immigration officer senses her difficulty with the language and mocks her. “How can you go to my country when you don’t even know English?” An Indian worker at the embassy supplies the perfect retort on her behalf: “You have been in India for years and still you don’t know how to speak Hindi!”

After suffering more insults and humilations, she finally lands in New York. The custom officer asks the inevitable question: “What is the purpose of your visit?” She flubs her line and says “I am here to attend my wedding.” The disgusted interlocutor waves her through.

Shashi (played with sublime pathos by Sridevi who has returned to the screen after a fifteen-year hiatus) tries to get used to the hectic New York life. One day, she notices an ad on a bus that promises to teach English to novices in a 4-week crash course. She has had enough of contempt and disrespect. Somehow, she manages to enroll herself in the language school.

The real story unfolds in the English class. There is a Mexican, a Pakistani, two Indians, a Korean, a Frenchman, a mysterious African and an irrepressible teacher. The Frenchman (Mehdi Nabbou) falls for Shashi ("her coffee-bean eyes float in a cloud of milk") as she stumbles her way through the minefield of basic English.

Shashi is the quintessential Indian wife. Adultery is not in her vocabulary. But the Frenchman awakens a certain feeling in her. In a cruel and mocking world, he extols her beauty and her rapid progress with the language. When Shashi’s younger niece, who had seen the duo walking animatedly down Manhattan Avenue, encourages her to respond to new love, Shashi replies: “I am not looking for love, only respect.”

The husband and the children arrive in New York. It’s the fourth and final week of her class. There is to be a final test before a certificate of course completion can be issued. But it interferes with her niece’s wedding. What to do? What to do? She cannot be in two places at once. On one side is the reason why she had traveled to New York; on the other, an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to infuse her life with meaning.

The loose ends get tied but not after some heartbreaking scenes of loss, longing and love. “Thank you for making me love myself,” she tells the Frenchman, the ultimate expression of her gratitude. For in loving herself, she realized that she had found the self-respect she had been craving all her married life.

She is now the confident citizen of a world whose redeeming values are diversity and acceptance.

Written and directed by the gifted Gauri Shinde, “English Vinglish” should be seen by Americans of all hues and backgrounds. It is a touching story that lifts you up and enlarges your humanity. Can anyone ask more from a movie?

Obama Needs to be a Different President This Time

Barack Obama will be our President for the next four years. You could hear the collective sigh of relief from Americans who dreaded a Romney victory. For many of us, however, an Obama victory was a sure thing, simply because he was the better candidate for the country.

But this victory comes with a price. Obama has no George Bush to blame this time. He will have to deliver on the economy and heal a nation that has probably never been this polarized. He has indicated that he is not interested in leaving a legacy, that his only goal is to do what's best for America and then exit the stage. But it is far easier said than one. The next four years will test Obama like he has never been tested before. If "Great things are done when men and mountains meet," Obama will have to be meet and conquer the many mountains that await him.

Something is terribly wrong with America now. The gap between the affluent 1% and the remaining 99% is deeper  and wider than the Grand Canyon. Education is on the ropes. Those who contribute most to keep our nation humane are rewarded the least for their efforts. Our values are awry. We fritter our creative energies away pursuing the trivial and the insignificant. Even Silicon Valley's innovations empower the affluent and the powerful far more than they empower those who need it most. Equality has become an empty word and justice a dream.

President Obama has to work to set things right. He should reduce his oratory and direct his energy to making fundamental changes in the way we distribute wealth among the citizenry. He has to curb the bottomless greed of the bankers and the Wall Street executives. He has to make education a priority by putting in place metrics that measure authentic learning and creativity in our classrooms. He needs to reach out to the Republicans but not at the expense of his vision or agenda. If the Republicans reject his overtures, he has to take his case directly to the American people and move on.

Mitt Romney has a role to play as well. By conceding graciously and uniting with the president to focus on common goals for the country, he can redeem himself and his party. At the very least, he can contribute by not engaging in negative attacks on the president. He can become a better person by accepting the tough lessons of the campaign and by helping to temper the extremist elements of the his party.

Tomorrow will indeed be another day for the 44th President of the United States. And, we hope, a better one for the majority, since it will be impossible to satisfy all.

Obama Will Win a Second Term as President

There is tension in the air, a kind of charged foreboding. It arises from a single question: What if Obama loses to Mitt Romney in the Nov. 6^th election?

Between anxious Americans and chattering pundits, the consensus seems to be that if Obama wins at all, it will be by the slimmest of margins. That also means that he may lose by the slimmest of margins. It may even come down to a tie. An electoral nightmare will then descend on America, paralyzing government and letting loose the vicious dogs of partisan warfare.

Relax, my fellow Americans. Nothing of the sort will happen.

Obama will win a second term as President of the United States of America. And he will win by a comfortable margin, with at least 300 electoral votes, 30 more than what is required.

Why will Obama win? It’s simple, really. Obama will win because he is the better candidate, and in their guts, a majority of Americans know it, including those who will vote for Romney. Obama is not slick. He does not bend in the direction of the current political wind. He is more humane, bringing healthcare to millions of Americans who would otherwise be left twisting in the wind if Romney were to be elected. The wealthy, most of whom amassed their riches on the backs of vulnerable Americans and government subsidy, will have to pay more tax, as simple justice demands. Renewable energy will have a better chance of flourishing, with potential breakthroughs in technology. Brakes will be applied on brazen thievery by bankers and Wall Street honchos who have destroyed a significant percentage of middle-income American families. And global warming will be dealt with from the perspective of scientists, not blowhards.

Obama has not exactly been a profile in courage. The word that perhaps best describes him is “prudence.” But we have seen what “bold” can do. George Bush tried to remake the Middle-East in his own image by inventing weapons of mass destruction. The cost of that arrogance has been incalculable.

The charge has been made that in his inaugural address in 2009, Obama promised to think, dream and perform big. It didn’t pan out. Most of his successes have been incremental, prose rather than poetry. But that’s what America needed in the last four years: avoid catastrophes at home and abroad by pursuing the middle path.

In his second term, the President can deliver on the promise of his first inaugural address and go for at least one or two bold moves that fire the imagination. Unburdened by expectations, he can set in motion policies that can generate good jobs at home and stability and peace abroad.

Mitt Romney is beholden to the extremist elements of the Republican Party. No matter how hard he may try to bring democrats and republicans together, his agenda will be driven by the Tea Party manifesto. This will be a nightmare for America.

Obama put Romney in the race with his inexcusable performance in the first debate. Romney’s dominance in that debate gave him the surge he needed to make this election a contest. But Obama also helped himself by the way he picked up the pieces in the two debates afterwards. Americans can identify with a candidate who suffers a decisive defeat at first and then goes on to stage a stirring comeback.

Along with “prudence,” another word that defines Obama is “lucky.” The man embodies luck. He got Osama bin Laden. Just when the economy is about to sink further, job prospects look up. When home sales hit the bottom, statistics indicate that prices are beginning to rebound. Romney can fight Obama on any front but when it comes to luck, the challenger is defenseless.

Obama's winning a second term is an even more impressive achievement than his first win. In 2008, Obama was riding on the wings of hope and change. After eight dark years under George Bush, Americans yearned for a change. There was the novelty of an African-America residing in the White House. John McCain didn’t help his case by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate. The country, and the world, held its breath for history to be made. And history was made.

But now there is no history to be made. The novelty has worn off. With his cautious and hesitant approach, ‘no drama’ Obama has brought us down to earth. His eloquence worked against him when his deeds fell short of his soaring words.

The honeymoon has definitely been over. That is why, to still elect him for a second term after seeing his flaws exposed under the harsh glare of reality, is so significant. Obama is not the embodiment of the impossible hopes we invested in him. He is neither the savior of the oppressed nor the statesman who can see farther than anyone else. He is just who he is, and that is good enough for us to choose him over Mitt Romney.

Congratulations, President Obama, for winning the toughest fight of your life. Now, please deliver on your promise by aiming higher than you have so far