Wow.

Every year cinephiles struggle to find a film that reminds them exactly why they love cinema. The exact type of film differs from person to person, and what you look for can constantly change from year to year. But you know those films when you find them, because there's that feeling you get. You sit there with your heart and mind open. Nothing else matters. You begin to reflect on yourself and your life, and how the film relates to you. As the credits roll, you let go of your breath, as if you had been holding it in the entire time.

This year, I have found that film in Ang Lee's Life of Pi. It is the film…

A visual extravaganza from start to finish, Life of Pi is an enthralling journey of adventure, hope & triumph of the will to survive against all odds that is as rewarding an experience visually as it is emotionally. It tells the story of Piscine Patel aka Pi, who is left stranded on a lifeboat after a shipwreck as the only human survivor and is accompanied by a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena & a fearsome Bengal tiger with whom he forges an amazing connection later in the story.

Director Ang Lee has always captured the wonders of nature in an overwhelming manner but with this film, he takes the film's photography to an even higher level of cinematic art as Life of…

My attempts to see Ang Lee’s much lauded adaptation of Life of Pi at the cinema was constantly thwarted as if being tested by a divine force. Whilst my own troubled journey may have lacked genuine peril, spiritual crisis or a Bengal tiger it seems appropriate that it wasn’t plain sailing. Adapting Yann Martel’s supposedly unfilmable novel for the silver screen also proved problematic, and having now watched the film it is easy to see why numerous writers and directors failed where Lee succeeded, yet whilst its journey is not without its problems, the director smartly steers this story of spiritual survival through the cinematic choppy waters (I promise to refrain from water based puns from hereon in).

Life of…

I am an atheist. I get totally pissed off when I see people using the name of God to indulge in their vices and hunt for power. I get angry when someone is overtly attached to God. I have gone the distance of even swearing at them. But I am also the one who yearns, the most for God.

The only thought which over powers my thinking of "There is no God" is the earnest wish that " Things would be different in the world had God really existed"

The people who believed in God's existence bothered me greatly. I never knew why I had spent such a lot of time trying to convince people why God does not exist.…

What is the greatest gift that children could inherit from their parents?

After my latest viewing of Life of Pi this was the first question that struck my mind. Instead of the innumerable, worthy, possible things that could qualify to be called as gifts, this was the one which came upfront and took centre stage as a profound notion. What if the child were a perfect mixture of his Mother and Father? A perfect combination of the Mother’s belief in all things beautiful, a follower of the way of Grace, a steadfast devotee of religion and a shining example of Love to all fellow beings, a studier of the Flora; and the Father’s realistic, rationalistic thoughts, the development of faith…

2013 Best Picture Nominees Rank

Watched with Nicolas

So glad I finally rewatched this.

This is one of those movies that I watch and I don’t feel like I am watching a movie. At least for the most part. For the first 45 minutes of this movie, I did feel that I was watching a movie, but for the rest, I was on an adventure. The captivating visuals and cinematography allowed me to be on that boat with Pi. While maybe not the best, this movie has probably my favorite cinematography of the decade, maybe all time. The handheld doesn’t move around too much and it’s not giving you a headache. But what steals the show is the stable camera…

Watching Life of Pi alone on a Friday night with a glass of wine.

It occurs to me that this movie is made for two kinds of people.

For one kind it's a movie about a boy who gets stranded on a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, monkey and lion. For others it's about a boy who gets stranded on a boat with a racist cook, his mother, some genial Asian guy and himself. Optimists choose to believe the fantasy about the animals, but those unafraid to call a spade a spade see it for what it is: a movie about some fairly unexceptional people in a gritty, unpleasant, not-at-all-mysterious and utterly desperate fight for survival. The animal people see…