Life of Pi is one of the best films of the decade. What is upon first viewing a thrilling and visually audacious adventury story reveals itself to be a symbolic and mystical film. Ang Lee's deft handling of the visual effects is balanced by his signature thoughtfulness, delicacy, and unique eye for stunning, rich compositions. I've seen Life of Pi about a half dozen times, and each time I become more enamored of the first 35 minutes. Pi (Irrfan Khan) narrates his upbringing in India to the author (Rafe Spall). The film sets up the major themes of the film as the teenage Pi (Suraj Sharma) wrestles with his own relationship to God, to nature, and to himself throughout his death-defying time at sea with Richard Parker the tiger.
Pi tells of his brief romance with Anandi (Shravanthi Sainath), a young dancer. Anandi at first glance feels like just a piece of Pi's normal life, a piece that he loses during his ordeal at sea. The film however recalls Anandi a few times, and her few moments in the film are actually part of what saves the life of Pi. The film doesn't lean on this too heavily; however the cinematic language suggests that Anandi is on Pi's mind. She is even mentioned by the adult Pi as something he lost just as he lost his family.
Pi meets Anandi while playing dholak for her dance lesson. He's immediately smitten and seeks her out ostensibly to ask her a question about one of her dance moves. They share this exchange, which is both quite cute and symbolically relevant.
The camera lingers on Anandi, who offers a enigmatic expression, before the film cuts away. She doesn't have an answer for Pi just yet. Well, Piscine, you're going to find out very soon why a lotus flower would hide in the forest...
But first, the film continues to connect Anandi with the lotus flower. During the nighttime hallucination, Pi (or is it Richard Parker, or both?) hallucinates seeing a lotus flower:
The lotus flower very quickly transforms into Anandi:
We then zoom in and go through her bindi (third eye):
And Pi sees the sunken ship on the bottom of the ocean:
This is honestly a very curious and puzzling sequence. When I think of the third eye, I think of Lord Shiva. In Hindu mythology, when Shiva opens his third eye it causes utter destruction. The third eye in the film leading to the sunken ship could mean that Pi sees the complete destruction of his family and his old life. The next sequence is the violent thunderstorm as well, where Pi wrestles with God as both merciful and merciless. Lord Vishnu is alluded to several times in the film, as both creator and destroyer. Early in the film Pi's mother Gita (Tabu) tells the story of Lord Krishna holding the universe in his mouth. I think there is something to be said about the whole of the universe - life and death - being contained within the self. And remember this sequence begins with an intense zoom into Richard Parker and an intense zoom out from Pi. We as humans are one with the universe, and we contain multitudes. Sometimes we are beautiful and serene, other times we are ugly and chaotic. In the film, Pi reckons with the person he had to become to survive his trauma, perhaps projecting his rage and violence onto the tiger Richard Parker.
Then I think about how it is through Anandi's bindi we see the sunken ship. Some people have suggested that Pi actually sees Gita, not Anandi, during this nighttime hallucination. I think the woman looks more like Shravanthi Sainath than Tabu though I can see Tabu in her as well. I think of this woman as Anandi mostly because of the lotus flower image that transforms into her. The third eye does not only recall destruction in Hindu mythology. It also suggests enlightenment, awakening, and the internal access point for higher consciousness. The lotus flower has been used in Eastern cultures as a symbol for rebirth, purity, and enlightenment. So by tying Anandi to the lotus through the dialogue and the hallucination, she starts to symbolize those things as well. And the zoom in through her bindi begins a journey for Pi of death and rebirth. First he sees the ship, then he suffers through the violent storm which nearly kills him and Richard Parker. Then he washes up against the paradisiacal meerkat island.
On their last day together Anandi ties a bracelet on Pi's wrist, as a token of remembrance. On the meerkat island, Pi ties that bracelet onto a tree. Pi seems close to death, and perhaps thinks of this island as some Garden of Eden where he can live out the short remainder of his life.
This brings Anandi back to the forefront. This island, where Pi eats seaweed and Richard Parker has an endless supply of meerkats, seems ideal. A perfect place to live. But of course, upon nightfall the meerkats flee to the trees and Richard Parker runs back to the lifeboat: the island is cursed. The freshwater pond becomes poisonous, and the ground is carnivorous. The island has an eerie but gorgeous luminescence, and looks like a recumbent, glowing Vishnu from a distance.
Pi sees a clump of leaves and picks it up. Something draws his eye to it. He opens it, and it starts to look like a lotus. Inside the lotus flower is a human tooth.
The human tooth shakes Pi, and he surmises that some other castaway lived on the island until he was completely consumed by it. He realizes that to stay here is to be resigned to death. Pi resolves that he is worth life, and is determined to find his way back to humanity. The lotus flower has symbolic power of purity, enlightenment, and rebirth. Here, the lotus flower brings Pi back to his consciousness and life-force. Pi is still a pure soul even with his trauma and the perhaps ugly actions he had to take. He has a new will to survive and comes to peace with the tragedy and horror he experienced at sea.
This is why the lotus flower was hiding in the forest; it was there to save Pi's life.
Life of Pi is rich with meaningful, evocative imagery like many of Ang Lee's films. The image of Anandi and her connection to the life-saving lotus flower has become for me one of its more compelling motifs. This short but sweet flirtation reverberates back at one of the lower points in Pi's life, and reveals to him the depth of his own humanity and mindfulness.
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